


No rest for the Wicked

by Babykitsune9



Category: Bleach, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: But her power has evolved, But she's not dating anyone unless he approves, F/M, Female Kurosaki Ichigo, Ichigo is still a soul reaper, Mischievous Izuku, Orphan Ichigo, Parental Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead, Protective Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead, Protective Yagi Toshinori | All Might, Shota likes his not-daughter, Toshinori's injury get's fixed up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-04
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:42:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 38
Words: 74,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22559617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Babykitsune9/pseuds/Babykitsune9
Summary: Ichigo supposed that she should have simply kept walking. But if she had, she would have left kids to die. So she did what she always does in such cases. She stepped in and fought, not knowing that by saving their lives, she was opening a door to greater things. My first bleach/MHA. Fem Ichigo. Not sure about pairings yet.
Relationships: Ichigo Kurosaki - Relationship, Shota Aizawa - Relationship, Toshinori yagi - Relationship
Comments: 16
Kudos: 198





	1. Chapter 1

Izuku would be the first to admit that he _never_ saw her coming.

Especially given how distracted he was by his inability to move, the villain, and of course his own rising panic and sense of utter helplessness. No, he never saw her coming at all. He was much to focused on the murderer Stain making his way over to Iida who was lying on the ground on his stomach, frozen just like him.

His dark blue eyes staring at him in fear and barely concealed dread.

So when Stain finally reached the older teen and was just about to finish him off while Izuku watched in horror- someone, a _girl_ of all things- came out of the inky darkness like a fucking bat out of hell and not only startled Stain enough to drive him back away from them both.

But also managed to put the man on the offensive without even having to lay a hand on him...well, it was just a tad bit weird. Especially given how jumpy Stain was around the newcomer.

"You again." The villain spat. Irritation and aggression bleeding from his very being as Izuku absently noted his words and shifted his attention to the girl.

She was standing barely a few inches from him, directly in his line of sight. Her body firmly placed between him, the pro hero that was lying injured on the pavement a few feet away, and Iida.

Izuku took a few moments to study her features, noting that she was about his and Iida's age. Perhaps even a year younger than them both. She was also exotically beautiful and had long strawberry blond hair that had a weird orange-ish hue to it even in the poor lighting provided by some of the buildings around the alley.

She was also tall.

Probably about the same size as Kaa-chan, to be perfectly honest.

Her lithe build carried little muscle on it, but was defined enough to let him easily tell that she was athletic. Her body built more for speed than actual power. But then again, depending on how fast she was and could move, power wasn't really needed to take a person out.

Izuku knew that better than anyone.

She had eerie neon blue eyes partially hidden underneath the long strands of her bangs- watchful, alert... _.predatory_. He thought with a slight shiver of alarm. She had eyes that looked as if they _saw_ everything she looked at.

Whether it was a person, place, quirk or...well, something else.

Those eyes of hers gave the impression of knowing all, and seeing all. It was fucking creepy to be perfectly honest. Not that he'd ever say that out loud and within her hearing range, Stain's reaction to her was strangely telling as far as what kind of person she was.

After all if she could scare him, Izuku very much doubted that he'd _not_ piss himself if she should shift her attention to him.

"Looks like." She finally said, sounding both just a tad bit aggrieved and maybe even a little bit resigned.

"What kind of sane person stalks a murderer?" Stain snapped at her. She lifted one hand up, and Izuku shifted his eyes for a moment to see what she was doing and nearly screamed at the blood that he saw on her hand as she brought it up to rub at her nape for a moment.

"I never claimed to be sane. Besides, you and you're little party of beat-up people are blocking my way home."

"So go around!"

"I don't feel like it. Anyways I couldn't in good conscience leave here without at least stepping in and giving these poor kids a fighting chance."

Stain seemed to mull over her words for a moment before then pointing to the pro-hero and asking, "And him?"

She turned her head for a moment to see who he was talking about and her eyes widened a little bit upon seeing the man haphazardly propped up against the side of the building bleeding. "Well...yeah. He's all cut up and stuff. It would hardly be a fair fight to just let you kill him, he can't defend himself."

Stain actually looked like he was disappointed as he sighed and asked, "Really? You're going to put you're life on the line for a bunch of wanna be hero's who don't give a damn about you or whether you live or die? You've already interfered with my work _nine_ times this week! That brat lying on the ground behind you would be missing a sibling, already if you hadn't have come along and fucked everything up!"

She didn't say anything more. She just shrugged helplessly. Though Izuku could already tell just from the conversation alone that she must be anything but helpless.

Still...it was nice to hear that she tended to interfere in Hero Killer Stain's work. Even if she did so recklessly and without any regard for her personal safety or well being.

It was also nice to know that she was the reason why Iida's brother was still alive. And from the shocked and confused look on his face, he was probably trying to sort things out, himself. But once he finally caught up- the girl, whoever she was- would have earned his eternal gratitude.

"Fine," Stain finally said after a few moments of silence before then tacking on. "I'll fight you for them. The same rules as last time apply."

"Okay."

"No bitching if I kill you."

"You won't hear a peep." She assured him.

"You know how to use a sword and knife right?"

"I do." She replied easily as she tilted her head to the side a little bit as he pulled a couple of blades from his weapon's stash and tossed them to her. She moved, subtly, but quickly. Easily catching both the knife and spare sword in both of her hands and then moving back into place as Stain said,

"You can borrow those then."

"Cool, thanks." She said as she took a moment or so to check out the weapons while Stain snorted and muttered something about her weird manners. Apparently the man had never had a potential victim thank him for something before.

Izuku, himself thought that she must be nuts to thank him for anything. Even the use of weapons. But that was just him.

"Are they to your satisfaction?" Stain finally asked as she ran a delicate finger along the sword blade and pulled it away bloody.

"Yeah. The blades are really well maintained. And they sing...beautifully." She said absently before she looked at him. Stain nodded his head and smirked.

"Good. Now show me what you can do with them, _Fate_." Stain spat the last word out like it was a curse. But the girl just got a grimly determined look on her face and simply said,

"I thought that I told you not to call me Fate." As she stepped away from Izuku and Iida and moved as far away from them as she dared, for maneuverablilty's sake, and then moved into an defensive position as Stain ran at her.

Their blades clashing together was deafening. So much so that it was all Izuku could do not to flinch every time the two tried to score a hit on each other. Stain was utterly vicious in his attacks. And the girl...managed to somehow not only defect and parry each blow, but scored hit after hit after hit on him without breaking a sweat.

Which had to be frustrating to someone who used blades as well as Stain did. If Izuku would hazard to make a guess, both of them were formally trained in the use and handling of swords and knives. Perhaps even in the martial arts.

But as good as Stain was with his blade, his fighting method couldn't seem to compete with the girl's. Which was interesting considering the age difference and all.

 _She must have trained like crazy to get this good._ Izuku thought to himself as he watched in something akin to awe as Stain went for her throat at one point knowing that she couldn't dodge, and nearly took her head off before she planted her foot in his stomach, hard and then danced away from the blade.

Causing it to catch her shoulder instead.

Both Izuku and Iida shouted in alarm, half expecting her to drop to the ground screaming like any other person who got a hellacious and painful looking cut like that one. However all she did was glance over at her shoulder for a moment and take note of the blood running down her arm, staining her once clean black shirt and then flicked her weapon in an practiced motion as Stain lifted his up to his mouth and licked it.

"No!" Izuku shouted as soon as he figured out what Stain was planning to do. He should have warned her sooner, unfortunately, Stain had already ingested her blood and she simply stood there, motionless as the man laughed.

"Aw, too bad Fate. Now I've got you all right where I want you and can kill you all at my leisure." Stain taunted. Izuku tried to move again, this time his actions were frenzied. The only thing on his mind was freeing himself so that he could help the others. The girl was now included in this for her part in stepping between them and Stain and trying to get him to back off.

Which was why he nearly died of shock when Stain started to brush by her and wound up with a small, but no less powerful, fist _smashing_ into his face with enough bone crushing force that it sent the murderer through the side of the building just a few feet away where he lay sprawled on his back on top of some of the bricks that she'd sent him through.

 _"Holy-"_ Iida shouted in dismay as Izuku cut him off with a squeaky sounding, _"Shit!"_ Which was then followed by, _"How the hell?!"_ As she stood there, staring at Stain for a moment longer before then turning on her heel and walking back to them.

"You boys doing okay here?" She asked once she was close to them again.

Both teens chimed in with a automatic, "Yes ma'am." Before Iida mentioned that they still weren't able to move any. She nodded her head in understanding and told them both to hang on for a second and she'd fix that for them. Which raised all kinds of questions.

After all, as far as they knew Stain was the only one who could do anything about their motion-issue. However it turned out that they were wrong. She _could_ fix it. And she did. Though neither teen really knew how that was possible.

Izuku noticed a warm pulse the moment that she touched him. It was faint, subtle even. But it was there. And once she removed her hand from his shoulder, he could move again instantly. Iida was given the same treatment, at which point she gently helped him to sit up so that she could check his injury.

His shoulder was an utter mess. The metal of his armor had done little to protect him from the spikes on Stain's boots. And from the perturbed look on the girl's face, Iida might have quite a bit of trouble with the injury even once it was healed up.

Or at least that's how Izuku read things anyways.

Once she was done checking his shoulder, she began to rip up the bottom of her shirt to make make-shift bandages for him, and both Iida and Izuku couldn't help but freak out the moment that they saw skin.

They were both teenagers after all. It was only natural for them to freak out. Especially since they'd never seen a partially naked girl before outside of a swimming pool. And even then, they still got flustered and looked away.

There was simply something about seeing a girl's bare skin that made them nervous. It didn't matter if it was their legs, stomach, chest or back. It was all tantalizing for boys their age and inevitably led to some quality time in the bathroom trying to will their erections away.

Iida yelped as she wrapped and tied a bit of the torn fabric from her shirt around his shoulder, making sure that the knot that she used was tied tightly in place to help staunch the flow of blood which had lessened but not yet stopped before then shifting her attention to the pro-hero and getting up to go and check on him.

To be perfectly honest Izuku was so busy keeping his eyes on her and her actions that he'd all but forgot that the poor guy was bleeding all over the place as she knelt down and felt for a pulse in his throat for a moment before then turning to him and saying, "How fast can you run?"

Izuku stiffened a little bit and then slowly forced himself to relax as he frowned for a moment.

"Pretty fast." He replied.

She nodded her head and then asked, "You strong too?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Cause there isn't really anything I can do for this guy and he's a heartbeat away from bleeding out."

"What?!"

She shot him a look that quickly had him shutting up before going on to say, "I can maybe buy him a bit more time by extending my own healing ability to him. But it will only work for a short time. Five minutes. Maybe seven if you really push it to get to a nearby hospital. But outside of that, there isn't anything that I can do."

Izuku mulled over her words for a moment before nodding his head in understanding and simply saying, "Alright, then do what you can and leave the rest to me."

She needed no further prompting and was already placing a softly glowing, pale blue hand on the man's chest right above his heart. And Izuku and Iida both watched as the worst injuries on the pro-hero all knit together a little bit. Slowing the flow of blood to a crawl before moving away from him again.

"He's stable. You can take him now."

Izuku hesitated for a moment, despite wanting to grab the poor guy and run like hell to the nearest hospital. There was still Stain the Hero Killer to deal with. "Um...I hate to ask, but...w-what about-" He motioned with his hand towards where Stain was lying.

Either very badly dazed or unconscious.

"I'll tie him up. You take that guy to the hospital already," Izuku still looked uncertain of leaving her and Iida alone with Stain. "And be careful when you leave too. There are some weird bird-mutant things flying around causing all kind of trouble."

"Huh? Wait- d-did you run into a Nomu?" Izuku asked in an incredulous tone as he inched closer to her subconsciously. His intention was to check her hands since he'd seen one covered in blood and could only assume what had happened to it until it was looked at. Plus there was her shoulder to consider.

It must have been hurting her by now since the adrenaline flooding her system had to be wearing off now.

"Nomu?" She muttered with a frown before asking. "Big thing? Muscley? Has a partially exposed brain?"

Izuku and Iida both nodded their heads soberly as they studied her anxiously.

"Oh, yeah. A couple of them."

"Are you hurt?" Izuku asked before then quickly tacking on in a hurried tone. "I-I mean, before I saw your hand and it was bloody."

"I'm fine. Just a couple of bloody knuckles and a couple of broken fingers."

 _"What?!"_ Both teens screeched at her as Izuku got a determined look on his face and moved even closer to her. She didn't really seem to react to his invading her personal space like most girls would with a strange boy, so he wasn't really sure how she'd react if he grabbed her hand to look at it. But he kind of suspected from the weird way that she was watching him like a hawk that she was sort of trying to mentally prepare herself for the inevitable contact.

Maybe because if she didn't, he'd wind up in the same position as Stain. And something told him that, One for All or not, he wouldn't fare well at all if he moved too fast or too suddenly.

Still, he was just a tad bit shocked once he was finally able to manage to grasp her hands and took a moment to look at them both. Front and back.

Sure enough, he could see the discolorations and bruising along the broken skin on her knuckles. As well as the not so subtle swelling and discolorations around several of her fingers on _both_ hands. Muttering a dark oath underneath his breath, he gently ran his thumbs along her injured knuckles and felt an odd surge of protectiveness towards her as he turned over this new bit of information in his mind.

She'd had a run in with a 'couple' of Nomu. Injured both of her hands, suffered some broken bones. Still placed herself in harm's way to protect them from Stain. Got her shoulder fucked up via a sword. And somehow still managed to _KO_ the Hero Killer with one of her already injured hands.

If not for the fact that he was a little bit pressed for time and maybe even a little bit pissed about her being hurt like she was, even if it wasn't as bad as it could have been, he would have likely reacted differently than he did. But instead he did something incredibly risky. Like give her his name as he slowly released her hands.

His emerald green eyes locking on her face as he stared her down. Waiting both patiently and impatiently for her to respond with her name.

He could almost swear that his heart nearly stopped in his chest when she finally did.

Her name wasn't what he'd expected it to be. It was hardly feminine. But oddly suited her. Smiling slightly, he said her name as if testing it on his tongue. Little did he realize that this would be a common occurrence after today.

"It's nice to meet you, Ichigo." He finally breathed, feeling something strangely warm settle in the vicinity of his chest as his lips quirked a little bit more.

"You too," Ichigo said politely. Her own lips curved up a bit before she then said. "Are you going to take that guy to the hospital now?" Izuku nearly jumped out of skin at the reminder and quickly went to collect the man as he anxiously asked if she and Iida would be okay if he left.

Stain was _dangerous_ after all. And if he decided to put up a fight, they might not be able to do anything to really defend themselves. Ichigo's shoulder and both of her hands were a damned mess and she would require medical attention sooner than later if she was going to get proper care.

And Iida had lost a fair amount of blood from his own wound and likely would need immediate medical attention himself soon.

"We'll be fine," Iida assured him as he was lifting the pro-hero Native up onto one of his shoulders. "Something tells me that Miss Kurosaki will help keep Stain from rampaging anymore." Iida said as he cast a look at the girl as she grabbed Stain and pulled him out of the mess of bricks, and quickly unlaced his boots and used them to tie his hands behind his back before then stripping him of his scarf and repeating the action so that even if he broke through the laces- he'd still be tied up.

And while he still may get free somehow- he'd have to really work at it since it wouldn't be easy to slip the knots that she had used. Especially on the scarf.

Still, the fact that she had tied him up in such a way was a clear indication that Ichigo had some sort of training. Beyond just martial arts and weapons training. And as curious as Izuku was to ask her a ton of questions, Native's time was running out.

So after calling out that Todoroki should be there soon and that he'd bring help back with him as he finally ran out of the alley.


	2. Chapter 2

Dragging Stain out of the alley while he was still unconscious wasn't much of a feat considering that Miss Kurosaki did all of the heavy lifting while Iida hung back a little bit and fussed worriedly over her. Like Izuku, once he realized how _badly_ she seemed to be hurt- his protective instincts rose up and now he was making an utter nuisance of himself.

His quiet companion didn't seem to mind his fussing anyway. In fact she hadn't even told him that he was being annoying even once. And he had been expecting her to do so within the first five minutes or so of being left with him.

"Are you sure that you're okay?" He asked again for like the umpteenth time in so many seconds. She merely rolled her eyes at him in a good natured manner and propped Stain up against the building beside them.

"I'm sure."

"Cause your hands and shoulder look like they really hurt."

She made a soft humming sound before easily replying, "They do."

"Then maybe you should sit down or-" He started to say that maybe she should sit down and rest. Her shoulder alone had to be almost agonizingly painful for her. And he wouldn't swear to it because of her shirt sleeve, but he could almost swear that he saw a little bit of pinkish white colored bone whenever she moved her arm a certain way.

Which was alarming for several different reasons. One of which was the fact that if her injury went untreated for long she could develop an infection or something. Or what if she got nerve damage?

_Oh god- what if she's got nerve damage?!_

The mere thought of her walking away from this incident with possibly irreparable damage because of his stupidity was enough to make his stomach twist painfully and bile burn the back of his throat as she slowly straightened her spine and he took a moment to get a good look at one of her hands.

The one that he could see the back of was bruised up, a blue/purple color while her knuckles were raw and bloody. Almost as if her knuckles had been dragged across a cheese grater once or twice. It looked painful. But not nearly as painful as her broken fingers must have been.

Though she didn't really react to any of the usual pain or twinges that one would feel from broken bones, and she was moving them as carefully as she could- but they still must have _hurt_ like a bitch.

"O-Or..." His voice trailed off a little bit. "Please stop moving your hands and shoulder!" He suddenly shouted at her causing her to freeze up for a moment and look at him with wide, shocked eyes.

"W-What?"

"You're pushing yourself when you shouldn't. So please, _stop it_. You could hurt yourself even more," He said in a softer tone as he reached out and gently took hold of her good arm and maneuvered her over to sit on the ground a few feet away, across from where Stain was, with her back against a light pole. "Just...sit here and try not to move anymore if you can help it." He said softly. Coaxingly. Hoping that she would listen to him.

And she did for a little bit since his chastising her seemed to amuse her.

And things were fine for a while. At least until Todoroki showed up with some other pro-hero's right behind him. The moment that Shoto showed up, Ichigo decided that it would be a good idea to get back up again. Despite the warning look Iida shot her from over his shoulder.

She simply smiled pleasantly at him and then started to ignore him.

"Todoroki-" Iida said in greeting as the boy ran up to him and began to look him over. A look of concern etched on his face as he noted his injured and bloody shoulder.

"Midoriya, sent me this location but no details. Just what happened here?" Shoto finally demanded as he caught sight of Stain and Ichigo. His eyes widening a little bit as he took in both of their appearances.

Stain was still unconscious and Ichigo was a damned, unconcerned, bloody mess.

"That's a little bit of a long story- But basically, I did something stupid. Izuku showed up and got caught up in it too. And we were both saved by the girl," He motioned to her as she was surrounded by the pro-hero's. "Her name is Ichigo Kurosaki. And I wouldn't swear to it but she's hurt pretty bad. Stain didn't exactly go easy on her."

"She fought the Hero Killer?" Shoto asked/demanded in a horrified tone as he turned to look her over in the same worried manner that he'd used on Iida mere moments before.

"Yeah. And apparently she ran into a few Nomu on her way here too. Though I don't know the specifics. I do know that she has multiple broken fingers on both hands, severe bruising along her knuckles and Stain managed to get a really good hit in on her shoulder," He leaned down a little bit to whisper in Todoroki's ear. "I think her shoulder was split open to the bone."

"O-Oh," Shoto said in a slightly hesitant tone before then asking, "So who defeated Stain?"

Iida shot the girl a pointed look and Shoto felt his eyes widen a bit in shock and surprise. "No way."

"Way." Iida said with a sage nod of his head. Shoto's eyes flickered back to the girl who was slowly inching her way away from the pro-hero's that were surrounding her talking all at once while one of them called for an ambulance.

 _"How?"_ He asked curiously.

To be perfectly honest, as far as he could tell- there was absolutely nothing powerful or even slightly impressive about the girl aside from her height. And maybe her looks.

"Well, turns out that the reason Stain was so successful at killing so many people has to do with his quirk. He'd cut someone and then ingest his victim's blood, and then his quirk would activate and they wouldn't be able to move. He got both me and Midoriya with it. We couldn't move at all. But Ichigo played as if she couldn't move once he ingested her blood. I'm not exactly sure how- but she wasn't affected by his quirk at all."

He kept listening intently, even as the girl decided to try and make a run for it causing her to be tackled by two of the hero's trying to tend to her injuries. She let out a startled yelp as she was knocked down and pinned, causing both Iida and Shoto to look over at the small dogpile on her before he asked in a slightly disbelieving tone, "So she really defeated Stain?"

"More or less. Yeah."

"Should we maybe try to save her?" Shoto asked as he watched the very embarrassing spectacle as it unfolded. Iida had this weird look on his face like he was witnessing a train wreck or something. He just couldn't seem to look away from the girl and her antics as he slowly replied.

"I don't think I want to fight a couple of really intent pro's. Especially when they're just trying to help her with her injuries."

"Yeah..." Shoto said in an uncertain tone before then tacking on. "But she doesn't look very happy with them touching her." As they watched her as she tried to squirm her way to freedom only to be grabbed by the back of her shirt and pulled her back right about the time she reared her leg back and kicked one of the poor guys in the nuts.

Both teens cringed in sympathy as the hero went down crying while the other screamed in _horror_ and quickly scrambled off of a green looking girl whom merely squeaked out a slightly disturbed sounding, "Crap! Sorry!" And she looked sorry too.

Hell she looked downright ill as the hero writhed around on the ground while his buddy yelled at her for hurting his friend's 'precious jewels'.

"What is wrong with you?! We're just trying to help you. Why would you do something so mean?!" The other pro-hero practically yelled at her.

"Don't you think I know that?! I feel bad enough for hurting your friend when all I wanted was for the two of you to get the hell off of me before I had a PTSD episode!" Ichigo shouted back, her tone sounded harsher than she probably intended for it to be. Yet it was just as attention grabbing as the words leaving her lips. "For god's sake the last time I hit the ground that hard was when I was nearly killed by the same _serial killer_ that murdered both of my little sisters!"

Everyone fell silent.

Iida, Shoto, the pro-hero that had probably just lost his ability to reproduce, his friend who up until a second ago had been shouting at her- and even the pro-hero on the phone calling for help was utterly silent all of a sudden.

All eyes were on her and from the looks of it, she was pissed with the sudden amount of attention that she was getting. Iida was the first to shake himself and walked back over to her and dropped down to his knee next to her and asked, "A killer went after you? He killed your siblings... What about your parents?" He regretted asking the question the moment it left his mouth.

Ichigo flinched and looked as if she'd just been slapped by him.

If it was true then he wondered if she was under a pro-hero's protection at the moment. And if perhaps she had been in hiding or something. Or was she a hero-in-training like himself, Izuku and Todoroki? And if so- wouldn't she be acting as someone's apprentice at the moment like they were?

It certainly wasn't beyond the realm of possibilities considering her fighting ability. There weren't many people that he could name right off the top of his head that could get hurt like she was and _still_ somehow manage to push the pain aside enough to keep on _fighting_.

It didn't matter, in his opinion, what kind of formal training she'd been given. It simply wasn't normal.

"I-Is there anyone that we can call for you?" One of the pro-hero's finally asked. "A friend or something. Someone who would want to know if you're hurt?"

"No. There isn't anyone."

"No one?" Iida found himself asking automatically.

Ichigo looked away as if she were embarrassed or something and muttered a soft, "Nah. There's no one left." Todoroki appeared a second later next to him and stared at her hard for a moment before the two boys exchanged a look. Both of them thinking something along the same lines of offering her a place to stay and someone to take care of her.

However neither of them would speak the offer aloud until they figured things out a little bit better.

Things were started to wear down a little bit when a couple of Nomu started to show up. Iida, being as injured as he was, would be of little help should the creatures decide to make trouble for their group. Whereas Todoroki and the pro-hero's would be more likely to put up a fair fight. It still might be enough.

Iida and Shoto both anxiously watched the skies for several minutes. Secretly hoping that the creatures would leave them be when two of the circled and looked as if they were going to dive at them.

Shoto and Iida barely had any time to shout out a warning, let alone move before the things dove towards their group. Both boys shouted, and the pro-hero's all took up fighting stances- when something- or rather someone brushed by them at a nearly impossible speed.

If not for the fact that both teens were being trained by people who's quirks were speed and power based; they would have completely missed Ichigo running past them and meeting the Nomu head on. The three bodies collided _violently_ in mid air right above their heads.

Ichigo slamming into the two creatures with enough momentum to send both of them flying a short ways where they hit the ground and skidded along the street until they came to an abrupt stop as she landed deftly on the balls of her feet a short ways away from them.

"Ichigo-" Iida started to tell her that the Nomu, especially the ones she had just knocked down were likely to be super humanly strong and she _shouldn't_ engage them. She wasn't a match for them. Not in her current state.

But she merely cast him a look over her shoulder and growled out, "Stay out of this." And the words froze in his throat as her eerie blue eyes glittered like they were glowing from underneath her bangs as she slowly straightened her spine, rolled her shoulders and then started walking.

The Nomu were getting up. Both angry and screeching their wrath at her.

But Ichigo didn't seem to care.

The overwhelming urge to _fight, protect, defend_ \- was riding her harder than it had in a good long while. Which just meant that the weird pterodactyl-esque creatures before her were going to die.

She zoned out, her focus was completely on the creatures. So she didn't hear anyone shouting at her in alarm. Or trying to reason with her to _run away_ because she was already injured and didn't stand a chance. She would have scoffed at whoever said that anyways.

Mostly because no matter how true it was- she knew that she still had enough strength to take these creatures down before she reached her limit for now.

What happened next was hard to say. Even from her viewpoint. When she zoned out she tended to get tunnel vision. All she saw, all she was moderately aware of, all that she felt was the overwhelming urge to destroy her enemies. To rip and tear them to pieces.

To feel their blood on her hands, and spattering her face.

There was no logic, no fear, no pain- _no reason_ \- outside of the urge to fight.

It was all over in the blink of an eye to her. But to those that had been close enough to watch what she'd done- it seemed to begin and end in the span of hours. The mind was so busy breaking everything down for them that time seemed to slow to a crawl.

She didn't register the fireball of agony spreading along her already injured shoulder. Didn't really see nor feel the flesh that had been shredded from the bone. She didn't even feel the dangerously close to lethal bite wound on her other shoulder.

She was aware of the fact that she was staring down at the bodies dazedly. As if she weren't really there. Did she black out? She wondered idly for a moment as she took in the various injuries and damages that she had done to the creatures.

Torn almost off wings, multiple broken bones, one of them- possibly the one that had decided to stupidly take a chunk out of her- was missing it's bottom jaw and part of it's throat and chest. The other one was missing part of it's skull, and had several gaping wounds in it's chest and torso.

Like she'd decided at some point that it would look better as swiss cheese or something.

Then as quickly as it started, everything ended and it all hit her at once. Awareness. It could be both a blessing and a curse.

This was just one of the many times that she cursed it because she could suddenly feel the dangerous loss of blood, the agony spreading from her new injuries. Fuck even _breathing_ hurt her. Her limbs were unusually heavy. And she wouldn't swear to it, but it felt as if she were staggering a little bit.

She was vaguely aware of one of the boys screaming as someone ran up. The echo of their footsteps pounding loudly in her ears as her vision flickered once, twice and then...she was out.


	3. Chapter 3

A week and three days later-

Everything that had happened a week ago with Stain and the Nomu's was finally beginning to quiet down. And in that time, everyone who had been injured that horrible night was slowly beginning to heal and go back to their daily routines.

Iida, got a nice scolding from the guy that he'd been apprenticing under. Not to mention his own parents when they had come to see him in the hospital.

Izuku had gotten lucky this time around and hadn't suffered any serious damage from his encounter with Stain. But like Iida- he'd gotten a scolding from Gran Torino, who had been more than a little bit pissed by his stupidity. After all, if he told him to do something, he expected his apprentice to do it. _Not_ run off and get himself into trouble.

He had even smacked Izuku a time or two with his cane because he was old and hobbled and he didn't have the damned energy to be running all over the place after the boy.

Something that was laughed about. Once the elder was safely out of hearing range.

Izuku was young, not stupid _and_ suicidal. Besides the last time the old man had heard him laugh at him, he'd brained him with a chair and claimed that he hadn't seen him.

Yes, everything and everyone was going back to normal. Everything and everyone _except_ for Ichigo, that is. She spent nearly a week longer in the hospital than Iida did. And during that time, every time he or Todoroki had visited, she was strangely asleep.

And of course, once Izuku had found out about what had happened to her- and expressed the desire to go and see her- it had naturally gotten back to Aizawa and Toshinori as well. Both of whom had apparently decided to _investigate_ the girl by meeting her in person to satisfy their curiosity.

This was especially true once one of Toshi and Aizawa's co-workers stumbled upon a video leaked to the press of said girl tearing a couple of Nomu apart with her bare hands, and showed it to the two men. Whom had studied the video over and over and over again in the privacy of their offices and come to the conclusion that there was something very, _very_ peculiar about the girl.

So here Toshi and Aizawa were on their weekend off from work.

Standing outside of the same hospital that Iida had wound up in with his injury from Stain right along with said teen as well as Todoroki and Midoriya, waiting for the object of the three boy's newest fascination to step outside.

So far the three boys were keeping themselves amused with playful banter and jokes. While Toshi and Shota both lounged with their backs against a tree, watching the doors. Neither man really knew what to expect once the girl walked out.

But the sudden crowding around her being done by _three_ \- rambunctious teenage boys- certainly wasn't even in the damned ball park.

The moment that the girl stepped outside, the boy's all practically tripped over themselves to get to her. Toshi nearly yelled out to young Midoriya that if one of the others were in his way, then he should kick them to remove them. _Almost_. But then he recalled that he was supposed to be a respectable adult, and the three's teacher.

Also Shota was giving him a dark look that practically screamed, _I dare you_ , to him. So he wisely kept his mouth shut for the moment since he didn't want the dark haired man to _hurt_ him.

Another thing that they hadn't expected of the girl, was her appearance.

Honestly she was probably one of the most stunningly beautiful young ladies that Toshinori had ever seen before with her wide exotic eerie blue eyes and long wild looking strawberry blond hair.

Her body was petite, and lacking in any serious physical conditioning that was required to do what she had done to the Nomu. Though Toshi supposed that she had a quirk that enhanced her physically to allow her to better defend herself and others.

He and Shota waited until the teens had rejoined them before reminding their student's that they were present causing all of the chatting and stuff to suddenly stop and the teens to look at them. Midoriya and Iida looked embarrassed to have forgotten that they were there. Whereas Todoroki didn't seem to care one way or another as Iida quickly and politely introduced him and Shouta to the young lady.

"Ichigo-chan, these are two of our teachers. Mr. Yagi," He said as he pointed at Toshi, who nodded to the girl. "And Mr. Aizawa." The girl looked at them both for a moment and then with a smile still on her face, she tilted her head just so and whispered to Todoroki and Midoriya,

"The guy in the black outfit looks about as friendly as a serial killer."

Which caused everyone whom heard her to quickly snort and hide their amusement behind their hands as Shota just gave her a quick appraising look and asked, "You know many serial killers then?"

Ichigo blinked at him and opened her mouth to respond, but then quickly shut it again and looked away almost nervously. Which caused him and Shota to nearly gape at her in shock and horror as she muttered a dark and somewhat angry sounding, "Not by choice."

The boy's however all looked at her in alarm and suddenly started to talk over each other. Firing questions at her like, "How did that happen?" and "When did you ever cross paths with serial killers?" and "How did you get away?" and of course the horrified sounding, "Oh my god! Are they still after you?"

All of which were damned good questions, in Toshi's opinion.

However the girl seemed rather intent on trying to ignore all of them due to her sudden embarrassed expression as she said, "So...I've been in the hospital for the past week- and I would like to eat some real food before I die of starvation. Honestly I know that hospital food is meant to be practical and stuff, but that mush was just a disgrace. So, you fella's coming?" She tossed back over her shoulder as she started walking away.

The boys made a weird collective squawking sound and quickly followed after her despite Shota trying to stop them. Looking at Toshi as if he'd like to drop kick him for being useless, he saw the slightly helpless shrug of his friend's shoulders as he too decided to follow after the kids and huffed in irritation before he started to follow along as well. Already not liking how this visit was going.

Toshi couldn't really blame him. But he was far too curious to care terribly much at the moment.

Besides, he sort of wanted to know more.

* * *

Ichigo could have kicked herself for her slip-up.

Truly she could have.

She had meant what she said about the guy in black to be just a joke. Something slightly disrespectful and playful. Not something that was going to be turned back on her and open up a can of worms best left closed.

If Kisuke were here now...he'd slap her upside the head.

Hell, if anyone were there now- they'd probably take turns _stomping_ her ass into the ground. After all, had her time spent as a Soul Reaper taught her nothing about the value of secrets? It was a well known fact that there was safety in secrets. Safety in other's not knowing the things that she had been through or done.

The people who usually found out, rarely understood. They were so busy condemning her for being different that they tended to overlook the fact that if it wasn't for her and her friends- then they would all be dead a _zillion_ times over.

Still...now she was in a little bit of a bind.

The kids, she might could handle. As nice as they were, they also didn't seem overly curious about her slip-up. They had most likely asked her the questions earlier out of a weirdly misguided sense of concern. The two men however...they were a problem.

A big one that she would have liked to avoid at all costs.

Those two were trouble with a capital _T._

They were sharp, lethal, and deceptively dangerous.

She could tell just by looking at them that in a strange way, they were oddly similar to her. Soldiers masquerading as civilians. She could spot people like them from a mile away. There was just something about them that tended to catch her eye.

Some _spark_ of recognition deep within her heart and soul that simply drew her in. She'd felt it with Chad. With Rukia. With Kisuke, Uryu, and Orihime and everyone else that she used to know.

Pausing at the corner of the street, she took a moment to try and collect her thoughts as she waited for the street light to indicate that it was safe to cross the road and felt someone's hand slip around her own. She blinked as her mind was automatically pulled away from her jumbled thoughts, and glanced over at the person holding her hand and let out a soft huff of amusement at the boy.

It was the green eyed, dark black-green haired kid, Izuku.

He looked...oddly focused on something until she huffed. Then he cast her a side eyed glance and simply said in a hushed tone, "I-It's dangerous to try and cross the street when you're thinking so hard. You might miss something and get run over."

"So you're going to hold my hand?"

He shrugged at her question and replied, "It sometimes helps to have someone look and pay attention for you..." Before then asking with a small frown, "Does it bother you?"

"Dunno. No one's ever held my hand before." She said with a shrug. He turned his head to face her this time, a small frown marring his face. It looked like it was on the tip of his tongue to say something, but the light changed right about then. Sighing, he thinned his lips a little bit and then started walking.

Sort of leading her along as he went.

She glanced over her shoulder once or twice to see where the others were since everyone had gotten so quiet and absently noted each of their locations. The other two boys were at a subtle distance, talking amongst themselves. And the men were technically right behind them.

Also at a subtle distance. Not too far, not too close.

They were well enough within reach while staying at a slight distance. _Watching_. Waiting. She could appreciate their caution. But it was utterly wasted on her.

Turning her head back around to face the front, she heard Izuku ask her where they were going and gave him quick instructions to reach a nice little diner not far from their current location. It was pretty much the only place that she really liked in this strange new place.

The food was good.

The people were friendly and decent.

And they had a woman there with the ability to manifest memories from a person's mind. She figured that once everyone started to ask her questions again about her earlier slip-up, that it might be for the best to simply ask the woman to help show them since she didn't talk about such things. She might mention things offhandedly on occasion by accident.

But she didn't _talk_ about any of it in detail.

Stopping at the next corner to wait for the walk light to change, she almost missed one of the boys coming to a stop next to her and suddenly saying, "Stockholm syndrome," She made a soft thoughtful humming sound as she turned her head to look at him. It was the boy who had introduced himself last week as Izuku. His eyes were on her face, unblinking as if he were trying to see into her soul or something as he slowly said. "If you formed some kind of Stockholm syndrome from running into a serial killer a few times, I don't think I could blame you. Stain was a serial killer who had murdered over fifty people, and he was really scary too."

"The guy that was going to hurt you and your friend the night that we met?" Ichigo asked for clarification.

Izuku nodded. "Yeah."

"He wasn't scary," She wasn't trying to belittle the fear that he and his friend must have felt by being attacked by the guy, truly she wasn't. But it must have sounded like she was. Izuku looked at her oddly, his expression a combination of slightly insulted and perhaps a little bit angry too. So she decided to clarify things for him. "I'm not trying to sound insulting or offensive. But I've _seen_ scary."

His expression lightened somewhat.

And some unfathomable emotion shone in his eyes as she said. "I've looked into the eyes of pure evil. And even into the face of death himself. That guy that went after you and your friend looked like a cute little bunny by comparison," She shrugged her shoulder slightly before tacking on. "To me anyways."

Izuku narrowed his emerald eyes at her for a moment as he turned over this new information in his mind. Analyzing everything as carefully as he could before coming to the conclusion that she had gone through some serious crap in her young life.

At least enough to come out of it all severely damaged in one way or another.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay- I wanted to answer a question or two. 
> 
> Yes, Issun, Yuzu and Karin are dead. But then so are some of the others since this story takes place after the Winter War.
> 
> She does know serial killers, I mean, if you want to get technical. Wasn't Kenpachi one? 
> 
> She has blue eyes because she got into a fight once with Ganju and he slashed her across the face and blinded her. Now this supposedly happened in the manga. 
> 
> I don't know what chap, but in this story- Ganju was being controlled by someone. He put her eyes out. And the blue? We'll you'll just have to wait and see where they came from.
> 
> Also, Ichigo mentions in this chapter that she 'tried to die' it was a short time after the loss of her family and she was alone and overwhelmed. Suicide is never the answer. 
> 
> She also mentions depression and a few other things.   
> And I don't now if this chap will even make sense...

* * *

The restaurant that Ichigo had directed him too was nice.

The moment that they walked in, they were greeted by a waitress and a few others, including a rough looking guy cooking on a grill. The people seemed to know Ichigo too. Which may have played a small part in why she had chosen the place.

Maybe another restaurant was simply out of her comfort zone? Not that it mattered any to Izuku.

He and the others followed her lead, despite the fact that Toshinori and Awizawa both balking a little bit at the door before finally following them inside too.

Once inside, Ichigo led them all to a nice, private booth near the back and settled herself in a seat across from the window and waited for the rest of them to sit down and get as comfortable as they could. While the waitress that had greeted them before, came over and asked them if they needed a little bit of time to look over a menu while she set a glass of tea in front of Ichigo.

"Here you go Ichi, it's you're usual." The woman said in a hushed tone. Ichigo politely thanked her as she smiled at her and then started to pull out as she asked, "So where have you been lately, squirt? We haven't seen you around here for weeks."

"O-Oh. Uh, sorry. I've been keeping myself busy here and there doing some stuff." Ichigo replied awkwardly as the waitress hummed and then looked at her again.

"Stuff? What kind of stuff? Are we talking, nice stuff? Good stuff? Or the kind of stuff that led you to coming here one evening nearly beat to death, bloody, and holding onto your own severed arm?"

Ichigo made a weird squeaking sound and blushed as she whined, "It wasn't that bad!"

"Damn near," The waitress said in a no nonsense tone as she crossed her arms over her chest and eyed the girl. "Plus the joke you made of having your arm severed was truly twisted. I don't think I've ever seen Eric so close to having a stroke before."

"It still wasn't that bad." Ichigo defended.

"Still damn near. And that isn't even counting the time you got jumped by a thug on your way home, and beat the guy up and stole his wallet."

"He had a gun."

"So you beat him up and stole his wallet?"

"It was to teach him the error of his ways. Karma adds up ya know! Plus I didn't even keep his wallet. And he generously donated the cash in it to a couple of charities."

The waitress gave her a slow grin while everyone else simply eyed her in disbelief.

"Well, he did." Ichigo growled in irritation as she buried her nose in her own menu and made an attempt at ignoring the woman. It didn't work any. But she made a semi valiant effort until the woman reached out and used the tip of a finger to lower her menu away from her face as she asked.

"Which charities?"

"Huh?"

"Which charities did the jerk donate too?"

"There was enough money in his wallet to donate to six different ones. The local animal shelter, the local place for injured military Vet's, the homeless shelter about five blocks from here. The women's shelter. And a food kitchen and orphanage."

"My, my, he _did_ donate quite a bit didn't he?"

"He had more cash in his frigging wallet than my late dad- who was a doctor- used to make in a month," Ichigo said from between gritted teeth. Anger and rage bleeding into her tone. "Just what the hell was that ya-hoo doing jumping people at gun point and _stealing_ from them if he had that kind of cash on him anyways." It wasn't really a question though it sounded like one.

"Well, it does sound like you have been busy doing... _stuff_." The woman said in a semi teasing tone as she reached out and ruffled the girl's hair affectionately. "I'll stop riding you in front of your new friends then. Let me know if you all need anything."

Ichigo sighed and slumped down in her seat a little bit as she called out an appreciative, "Thanks Mila." as the woman walked away.

The moment that she was out of earshot Iida asked in a aghast tone, "You actually came here with a severed arm? Why didn't you go to the hospital?"

"Because I don't like hospitals." Ichigo replied as she internally cringed at Mila's bad habit of questioning her every time she saw her.

"B-But you could have died." Todoroki pointed out in a firm but gentle tone. Ichigo's eyes flickered up from her menu for a second and she shrugged her shoulders. Obviously not caring.

"I'm...just going to ask this now instead of later," Toshi finally chimed in after listening to the girl and shifting through bits and pieces of what little bit of information he already had about her in his mind. "But are you suicidal?"

He couldn't help but sound concerned. After all, here was a young lady the same age as his students. And she tended to get into a _looot_ of trouble. Like an obscenely abnormal amount really.

And she just didn't seem to care about any of it.

"Not at the moment," Ichigo replied with a small frown as the man's eyes widened a bit in alarm. She cleared her throat and set her menu down and then rolled up one of her sleeves and showed them all the scars running along the inside of her wrists. "I tried...to uh...die. It was about two weeks after losing my dad and sisters. I lost a couple of friends in that time too. And it was...just too much. I was in a bad way, alone, overwhelmed and I just gave in to the worst sort of feeling imaginable."

Toshi sucked in a ragged breath as Shota shifted a little bit in his seat. His expression dark as he stared at the ragged scar running along her wrist as she slowly pulled her arm back and jerked her sleeve back down to cover it.

"T-That-" Iida started to say that the wound/her feelings at the time she tied to kill herself was terrible. But she cut him off at the knee with a gently stated.

"I try not to let it bother me. And I'm seeing a therapist to keep things like that from happening again. So far I've been diagnosed with survivor's guilt, PTSD, depression and... I think my doctor said something about a dissociative disorder. But I don't really know if it was an actual diagnosis or just throwing words around?" She scrunched up her nose a little bit as if the mere mention of a dissociative disorder was something distasteful.

And to her, perhaps it was.

Toshi couldn't imagine her being fond of the blackouts, and the certain variation of specific memories. Not to mention the panic attacks, anxiety, sleep/eating disorder and other things that went hand in hand with it.

"Those are all really serious ill- _mph!_ " Izuku practically shouted as the girl absently reached over and placed her hand over his mouth to quiet him.

"I would thank you _not_ to announce my health issues to the world." She deadpanned as Izuku pried her hand away from his mouth.

"But they're really bad!" Izuku said again as Ichigo merely hummed. Neither agreeing nor disagreeing as Toshi hesitantly asked, knowing that her answer wasn't likely a good one given how recent the scar looked.

"How long has it been since...y-you tried to-"

"Die?" Ichigo supplied helpfully and gave the blond a sympathetic look when he visibly cringed before she replied, "Almost three maybe four months now."

Iida sputtered. Todoroki gave her a slightly saddened look. While Izuku looked like he was about to start bawling his eyes out any second now.

This was new territory for the kids as well as a harsh reminder that hero's sometimes _failed_ to save those who needed them. It wasn't something done on purpose. After all, what hero in their right mind could look into the face of someone so young and deem them _un-savable_ or an _acceptable_ loss?

He didn't know any pro-hero's that would do such a thing.

But he knew that there were some who cared far more for the fame, fortune and prestige that went with being a hero- than they cared about _actually_ helping anyone.

He wasn't sure how their meeting the girl would change the boys, but he could only hope that it changed them all for the better and they became more aware of the frailty of others.

Which left he and Shota to be the only sane people present at the table.

Well... _sort of_ anyways.

Shota sighed and muttered something about problem children and their problematic new friend and scowled at the girl as he dug his cell phone out. Toshi didn't bother to ask what he was doing since he knew.

It was already glaringly obvious that the kids were already attached to the girl and with her many, many health concerns- as well as the fact that she was an orphan and alone in the world- couldn't be left to her own vices any further than she already had.

He for one was _not_ looking forward to one of the boys one day maybe finding the girl's body and freaking out on him. And knowing his damned luck, it would be young Midoriya that found her.

So they were going to do what hero's did naturally. And while the girl may not seem as if she were in distress, but there was certainly a lot of her behaviors and personality that could be considered a cry for help.

And for that reason alone, they would save her.

Providing she told them everything about knowing serial killer's first, of course.


	5. Chapter 5

The waitress, Mila returned a little bit later to see if anyone would be ordering anything. Toshi and Shota decided on coffee because the fact that they were sitting across from someone so young, in such need of help- sort of put them off their appetites. Not that they had been going to order anything anyways.

Toshi was wise enough to know that none of the foods here would sit well with his stomach and would likely only end up being thrown back up later.

Which sucked. But he doubted that Ichigo had picked this place aware of such a fact.

The kids were sort of the same way. After hearing that their new friend was 'ill' mentally and had tried at least once to kill herself, they had grown quiet, and contemplative.

It didn't stop any of them from ordering something small though. And Ichigo ordered three platters- yes, actual platters. All of which were piled high with two burger's fixed all the way, some cheese fries, and a foot long turkey sub sandwich with lettuce, tomato, red onion and pickles.

She evidently hadn't been joking when she had said that she was starving.

Though if she was that hungry, he couldn't help but wonder why she hadn't said anything more about what she needed before. It wasn't like any of them would have let the poor girl go without.

And then once their order's were placed, Mila left again. Ichigo seemed to be waiting for something at this point, though he couldn't quite place what exactly. All he knew was that she kept letting her eyes flicker towards the door for several heartbeats as a small frown flitted across her face.

It was on the tip of his tongue to ask if something was wrong, however Mila returned with some of their order right about then. And oddly enough, it was her that noticed Ichigo's odd behavior and asked her what was wrong.

"Everything okay kid?" The woman asked as she set down Shota and Toshi's coffee. Her grey eyes flickering to Ichigo's face and taking note of her expression.

Ichigo gave a slightly absentminded response. "Everything is fine." At which point Mila straightened her spine a little bit and looked at her. Really looked at her and frowned too.

"Kid you've been coming here almost everyday since you moved to this city. I may not be a genius, but you have tells when you're anxiety is spiking. Now what's up?"

Ichigo opened her mouth and then closed it again and then looked down as she started to nervously drum her fingertip on the table for a moment before saying, "I need a favor."

Mila tilted her head a little bit as she regarded her, waiting for her to tell her what the favor was. If the kid was this nervous about needing a favor, then whatever she was needing to ask couldn't be good. Or worse, healthy for her.

"Y-You have that thing where-" Ichigo started to say as she made a little hand motion. Mila's eyes widened a little bit in realization as she helpfully supplied.

"Quirk. It's called a quirk, kid."

"Yeah that. I'm going to need to borrow you and the back room for maybe an hour or so."

"You want me to dig around in your mind." It wasn't exactly a question.

Especially after the one time she'd done it, the poor kid had freaked out so badly that she had disappeared for a few weeks. If not for the fact that she and Alec had actually looked for her, the girl might have died of pneumonia or something since she hadn't had a place to live just yet back then. And the whether had been cold and rainy.

"Uh...I accidentally let something slip. And they're asking questions that I'm not terribly comfortable with..."

"Answering?"

"Talking about, actually." Ichigo said with a tight lipped smile. "I just can't. So I was going to answer them by letting you show them my memories."

"Are you sure that you're okay with that?"

"Not really. But...I get the feeling that it's something that they aren't going to leave alone, or walk away from."

Mila took a moment to carefully consider everything that she'd just been told before reluctantly agreeing. After all, if the kid didn't want to talk about something, slip-up or not, she shouldn't have too. "I'll see if Alec can get the room ready for you then. In the meantime, eat something and try to relax. You can't be this tense and nervous when I start rooting around in your head. It'll cause problems if you are."

Ichigo gave her a grateful smile and nodded her head as Alec put her platters up on the counter and called for Mila to come and get them.

Almost fifteen minutes later, Ichigo finally finished off the last of the food on the platters that she'd ordered and was sitting back and letting her mind wander a little bit as Toshi said, "You really weren't kidding about being hungry." He'd never seen a girl- young or old- manage to put away that much food without at least leaving _something_ behind on the plate.

Shota was also impressed. He just didn't really show it aside from the slight widening of his eyes. and the boy's were similarly amazed. Iida actually clapped the second that she stuffed the last bite of her food into her mouth.

"Sorry," She muttered after a moment or so as color rose to her cheeks and she began to pick up and stack her dishes. "I really need the calories."

"That's quite alright, young Kurosaki-chan," Toshi assured the embarrassed girl. And it was. Her appetite should have been expected after her lengthy stay in the hospital. Especially given the fact that she was enhanced. It was just...really, really shocking how much she managed to eat in one sitting. That's all. "It's to be expected after the injuries that you sustained last week. Plus you're enhanced. So you do need to eat more to keep up with the demands that you're enhancement places on your body."

Ichigo glanced at him and nodded curtly and then looked away again as Mila walked back over. "You ready to do this, kid?"

"As ready as I'll ever be." Ichigo said in a resigned tone that seemed to dull the smile on the woman's face a bit as the girl slowly stood up and waited for the rest of them to join her.

The walk back to the back room of the restaurant felt like walking to the gallows to Ichigo. It simply left her with an uncomfortably fearful feeling that almost caused her to turn and try to run. However as scared as she was, she also didn't like the idea of running away.

It simply wasn't in her nature to back down from something. Which was why she walked along behind Mila with her head held high. She was a _warrior_ dammit. Warriors didn't flinch or shirk away from things that they feared.

They faced them head on and either succeeded or failed at their present task on their own merits.

Her heart felt like it was trying to punch it's way out of her ribs. And considering how many time's she had the stupid thing literally _torn_ out of her chest- that was really saying something.

Stepping into the back room elicited the same familiar feeling that she had gotten from the interrogation rooms in Soul Society. There was just an oppressive feeling of nearly mind numbing dread that washed over her. The sensation was so dizzying that she nearly collapsed where she stood.

And she might have actually done so if not for the peculiar thought that if she fell down; she wouldn't be getting back up.

Walking over to where Mila was standing behind a chair, she moved to sit in it and tried to ignore the dread and fear and everything else that she was feeling. If she wasn't able to suppress it enough, it would caught irreparable harm to her mind. And maybe even to Mila's too.

Mila waited until she was sitting to walk around the chair and kneel down with a couple of tablet's in one hand and a small cup of water in the other. "Here. These are a very mild sedative. They won't knock you out, but they should help to relax you." She said as she pressed the stuff into Ichigo's hands.

Ichigo took them automatically, and put the tablets in her mouth and swallowed them dry. She didn't want to waste the water on the pills when she might need it later on.

"Okay, kid. We're going to go slow because of how freaked out you are. Start with one of your...childhood memories. Something happy or amusing. It doesn't have to be the first one from when you were a toddler. Those memories tend to be gibberish because of your age at the time the memory was made. So try for one that's clear. Maybe from around six or seven years of age."

Ichigo took a deep breath and leaned her head back in the chair and let Mila put her hand on her head and tried to focus as the whole room went dark and the inside of it began to change into a living room.

Cream colored walls, white couch and two recliners. A coffee table, pastel blue carpeting across from a large screen TV. Family pictures, and knit-knacks were next to appear and after that, a little girl about five or six.

Ichigo hadn't looked like a girl as a child. In fact she looked more like a boy than anything remotely feminine. Short, wild looking strawberry blond hair, a t-shirt, cargo pants that went down to her calves. Her face was pixie-like, and perhaps the most different thing about her was her eyes.

Wide, innocent golden amber was a far cry from the eerie neon blue that she sported now.

The smaller version of Ichigo turned the TV off with a small huff and glanced over her shoulder towards a small stairway and then slowly got up and walked over to the stairs and seemed to hesitate to go any further for a moment. Her expression was one of worry.

Which was rather adorable.

But what happened next was far more shocking than anything that Toshi or the others could have possible anticipated.

"What are you doing?" A feminine voice asked the smaller version of Ichigo as a woman's shadow fell over the girl. The girl stiffened a little bit and slowly turned her head to look at the person behind her.

And the moment that the woman's face appeared, Toshi and Shota both let out choked sounds of dismay as they saw the familiar face of deceased former pro-hero _Nana Shimura_.

"Hi Nana." Little Ichigo said in greeting.

"Hello angel," Nana greeted back with her famous smile. The same smile that Toshi had sorely missed everyday since her death. "Now, what are you doing?"

"Mama isn't feeling good today. I think something might be wrong with the baby." Little Ichigo said with a small frown. Nana's smile faded a little bit and her expression grew concerned as she asked,

"Oh? What makes you say that?"

"Every time she eats...she get's sick." Little Ichigo said in an unusually somber manner. Nana's eye brown disappeared up under her bangs as she tried desperately not to crack a smile or laugh.

"And you think it's because something is wrong with the baby?" Nana managed to ask seriously despite wanting to laugh.

"Isn't there?"

Nana snorted in amusement and shook her head as she said, "No sweetheart. You're mama just has morning sickness."

"But it's noon."

"I know. But that's what's wrong. You just need to give her some time to let her stomach settle and then she'll be fine."

"But she's hungry now."

"Then how about we fix her something to eat later once she's feeling better. You know, having an expectant mother stand too much can be bad. It's hurts her back and her ankles and feet."

"It does?"

"Uh-huh."

"Okay... So we make something for mama so that she doesn't have to stand."

"Alright. So what do you want to make for her?"

Little Ichigo got a thoughtful look on her tiny face before suddenly announcing her idea for her mother's food excitedly, "Curry!"

Nana couldn't stop herself from laughing this time as she wheezed out, "The woman has morning sickness and you're answer to help her is to give her indigestion. That's brilliant." Causing little Ichigo to scowl at her and explain that if they made her mama her own favorite curry then she wouldn't get indigestion at all.

Little Ichigo was very persuasive if the weirdly shocked look on Nana's face was any indication at all. So a little while later the two were in the kitchen and Nana was watching Ichigo as she cut up the vegetables before she cut her little finger and wound up scowling at the throbbing, bloody appendage while Nana laughed at her.


	6. Chapter 6

Mila removed her hand from Ichigo's head and let the memory fade while she waited for the kid to settle a little bit more. She was far more relaxed than she had been before. Probably both due to the memory that she'd just gotten to peek at, and because of the pills that she'd taken before hand finally beginning to take effect on her.

However it wouldn't last.

Such peace never lasted. Not when the kid was involved.

"Alright. That was good. Now you're going to focus on your saddest childhood memory. Make it as vivid as you can." Mila instructed as she cast a curious look towards the two men in the room. The kids didn't react much to the previous memory. Except to maybe coo amongst themselves about how cute the kid had been.

The men however, looked both shocked and dismayed. And maybe even a little bit angry too as the one with the dark hair asked, "How accurate is this method of seeing into a person's memories?"

She didn't understand why he felt the need to ask. So she simply told him the truth. "Very. There are incredibly few reasons from Ichi's memories to be twisted and the information wrong. Severe brain damage, injury, and mental illness-"

"She _is_ mentally ill. She has PTSD and maybe a dissociative disorder."

"Unless she was born with it, it isn't the same thing. Such things would only affect her present memories. Not her childhood ones."

The two men exchanged a quick glance with each other before the blond took a shuddering breath and then told her to continue. Mila nodded her head and asked the kid if she was ready to go again. The girl simply hummed as she reminded her of which memory she needed to focus on next.

Unsurprisingly, her saddest memory was the one of her mother's death.

Though the memory was as vivid as Mila had asked for, some of the details were still a little bit sketchy.

All that they could really make out for a little while was the fact that it was raining, and little Ichigo was shaking her mother, trying to get her to wake up while the ground was stained _red_.

Nana appeared in this memory too. Decked out completely in her hero costume, she slipped down the small hill leading to the river bank and ran over to the child and quickly dropped down next to her and cast a pained look towards little Ichigo's mother and then slipped off her yellow cape and used it to wrap Ichigo in and then picked her up and started to carry her away as she screamed hysterically for her mom.

Mila cut the memory off there because the kid was starting to tense up again and told her to try thinking of something that was a secret. Nothing big. But something that had changed her life and then laid her hand back on the girl's head.

This time the memory was of her as a teen.

It was dark outside. And she was loitering around an old abandoned building with a bunch of other people. Including a violet eyed young girl with shoulder length black hair.

The smaller girl did some weird criss-cross arm thing and laughed like a cartoon villain before stopping and saying, "Calm down, Ichigo. You've been working hard for the past few weeks and you need a night off from work. Besides, this festival looks fun. What is it about again?"

"You came without even knowing?!"

"Well, yeah. Everyone looks so excited. It's kind of hard not to want to come. Why are you here if you didn't want to come?"

Teen Ichigo made a humming sound before the focus of the memory shifted for a moment and she was looking at a man in his forties and a couple of kids. "My dad and little sister Yuzu are both fans. So naturally I thought that I'd come along and make sure that nothing happened to them. Plus there's a lot of classmates here too."

The girl laughed softly. "Even when you're not working, you're working. I really don't know what to think about you sometimes. Speaking of," The girl moved to stand next to Ichigo and subtly pointed towards the building. "You see it right?"

Ichigo turned her head and blinked.

What was before, just an old abandoned building turned into an old abandoned building plus a person wrapped in chains with a gaping hole in his chest. His limbs were longer than normal as well. His body disfigured and barely human looking as Ichigo said softly, "Yeah...I see him."

"We'll have to preform a con-soul for him later, once everyone is gone. He should be fine until then."

"Alright." Ichigo said as the darkness was suddenly lit up by bright search lights. She had to lift a hand to shade her eyes as a loud voice over a speaker called out,

 _"The spirits are among you!"_ From a helicopter flying overhead. Ichigo groaned as the reaction of the people around her was instant. There were cheers and people doing what the dark haired girl had down before as a guy parachuted down to the ground between the building and the crowd.

"Hello my babies! And welcome to another exciting show of Spirit Hunter-" The guy said after he unfastened his parachute. Everyone went crazy. The roar of the crowd was so deafening that no one could really make out what the guy was saying until he spun his cane around and said, "Let's exercise it!"

At which point both Ichigo and her dark haired friend both tensed up.

The guy thrust his cane into the gaping hole in the other guy's chest-

"C-Can he do that?" Ichigo asked in a horrified tone.

"I didn't think anyone could." Her friend replied in a matching horrified tone as the guy started to pry the chain connected to the 'other' guy's chest loose.

Ichigo swore colorfully and jumped the fence separating the crowd from the entertainer and shouted, "Hey Stop! Don't do that!" Mere moments before a team of security guys appeared out of nowhere and tackled her to the ground.

And she was joined by her young friend barely two minutes later.

The memory shifted again. And this time Ichigo was up on her feet running. She was wearing different clothes this time. Instead of the plain T-shirt and jeans from before, she was wearing black traditional robes and straw sandals. And on her back was a massive wicked looking grey/black blade that was nearly as long and wide as she was.

She ran up to the guy that she had been screaming at moments before and pushed him just as part of the building came down on her head.

Toshi, Shouta, Izuku, Iida and Todoroki all stared at the image of the memory in utter horror as the guy mentioned that the 'other' apparently had a friend as Ichigo shoved several hundred pounds of heavy stone off of her and climbed out from under the rubble, bleeding from a head wound and another wound on her shoulder.

One of her hands looked bruised and possibly broken.

She made an animalistic growling sound and stomped up to the guy and grabbed him by the back of his outfit while he was busy still talking and dragged him along behind her as another section of the building came down. There was a loud howling sound coming from behind her.

The sound was like a hundred fingernails being dragged across a chalk board despite how loud it was. It was simply blood chillingly frightening and _horrible_ all at once.

Ichigo ran with the guy in tow up several flights of stairs before finally kicking open one door on the tenth floor of the building, at which point she flung the entertainer forward and then stood there with an irked look on her face as he rolled and finally came to a stop once he hit the wall several feet away.

"Hey! What did you do that for kid?"

"Are you an idiot or something."

"Well, no."

"Really? Cause you seem like one. Usually when someone yells at you to _stop_ doing something, then it's probably detrimental to your health that you _listen_."

"Why should I listen to you? You're just angry that I sent your friend away." The guy said as another loud howl shook the building.

Ichigo sighed once it got quiet again and looked at the guy with something akin to pity before launching into an explanation about how he hadn't sent the other spirit away. He'd changed it. Into something dangerous and ravenously hungry.

Something that _killed_ and _devoured_ people.

Upon grasping the full severity of the situation, the guy asked what he should do. To which Ichigo replied, "You do nothing. Fighting it is my job."

And fight it she did.

Mentioning at one point why she had dragged the guy away from the crowd outside. She was utterly amazing too. Not just for being able to fight something that wasn't tangible to others. But because of the fact that she placed the safety of the crowd outside first. While protecting the guy from being killed by the thing that looked like a massive fifteen foot toad with a white bone face mask, at the same time.

And once it was all over...

She and the guy were standing on the roof of the building looking down at the chanting crowd below as he asked, "You're name is Ichigo, right?"

"Yeah."

"I'm in awe of you kid. Truly I am," Ichigo looked uncomfortable upon hearing the compliment and looked away from him, embarrassed. "You were a real hero here tonight." He said with a slight smile, causing her to blush and mutter something as she decided to disappear.

The memory shifted again, showing her slowly sitting up from where she was lying on the ground to find her pretty friend sitting next to her. "Welcome back, Ichigo." The dark haired girl said with a fond smile before she told her that she had done a good job.

Mila ended the memory there and looked at the others as she asked what it was they had wanted to know. And gave a slightly alarmed look at the girl when one of the men mentioned something about serial killers.

Swinging her gaze back to the girl, she asked. "Kid?" Her tone saying far more about her thoughts than she vocalized. Did this really need to be done? Did she accidentally witness something? What the hell was going on?!

"I got this, Mila." Was all that Ichigo said as the woman sighed and then laid her hand back on her head and tried not to flinch at the memory of fighting, clashing swords, and blood.

The first bit of memory that they all saw this time, was Ichigo skewered through the chest by a steel blade, unable to breathe. And the cruel laughter of a mad man with one eye, dreadlocks and scars.


	7. Chapter 7

Ichigo's memories of all of her encounters with Kenpachi, weren't exactly fond ones.

Mostly because he was a psycho whom had tried to kill her on a number of occasions since he'd met her. Long before finally deciding that he liked her alive enough to _keep_ her that way. Whether she wanted him too or not.

And part of the reason that he had decided to keep her alive, had everything to do with how she had beaten him when they had first made contact. It was both impressive and horrifying for Toshi, Shota, and the boy's to admit, but Ichigo was an absolute badass.

The two had almost _killed_ each other stabbing and hacking one another into pieces.

Afterwards, they had both lay well within each other's reach. Bleeding heavily from mortal injuries that they had both given to one another as Kenpachi had laid close to losing consciousness, he'd started laughing.

The sound was one of pure joy and happiness before he had said, "Oh, I'm going to have so much _fun_ with you kid. So don't you dare die. I want to fight you again someday. Until then, get stronger. And I'll work on getting stronger too."

At which point she had somehow managed to push herself up off of the ground, despite her heavily injured and undoubtedly _half dead_ state- and she had grabbed him by the front of his shirt and yanked him up by it and _snarled_. Fiercely at the madman to _'bring it the fuck on_ ' before she'd wound her arm back, and punched him hard enough to rattle his brain in his skull, rendering the man unconscious before she then dropped him back to the ground and gave in to the lull of unconsciousness herself.

And as horrifying as her first meeting with the man had been, there were far worse clashes that followed.

They saw each and every one of them.

Every clash, every fight, every battle- but even more horrifying was to see her at _war._ And she had unquestionably been to war on several occasions, Toshi didn't know how that could be. After all it wasn't as if the events were televised or reported on. And yet they had happened nevertheless.

Ichigo had fought either to save one person- like her pretty little violet eyed friend. Or to save many.

The memory of her hometown falling under siege by a group of militarized lunatics had been incredibly telling. Everything for miles had _burned_ on the command of a man who fancied himself to be a god. And just when it looked as if Ichigo would lose the fight or die- she somehow surpassed everyone.

Her power growing by such mindboggling leaps and bounds that it was difficult to keep track of everything that had changed.

And then, just like all things inevitably did. It all ended.

Sadly, brutally- with the loss of so many. Her friends, her family... She had witnessed their deaths, Toshi was saddened to know. They had been right there with her, and she had been trying so damned hard to keep them safe and get them away from the enemy.

She had wound up in a fight with one who had been working as a distraction while another snuck up on her dad and sisters and before she could so much as reach them- she had been knocked to the ground and pinned by a steel pipe being viciously shoved through her stomach and was forced to _watch_ as her world entire was ripped apart.

The pain and disbelief and grief that tore through her being as she watched her father and baby sister's meet their end was a nearly palpable thing.

They had seen her fight against insurmountable odds. Damned impossible ones too.

They had seen her ripped apart, her body torn open, her organs and blood staining the ground over and over and over again. But this- this was the thing that would finally destroy her.

Her grief was so maddening that it frightened them.

And for good reason too. The moment that she managed to finally break free and get to her feet again, she stopped resembling a human being and became something else entirely. A monster forged in hellish fires. A child forced to grow up and fight for everything.

Every breath that she'd ever taken, every friend that she'd ever made- she shed _blood_ for them all.

So it wasn't totally shocking to him that she went after the ones responsible for her loss.

However what was shocking was that she _annihilated_ them all down to the man that had murdered her dad and sister's. She saved him for last because she owed him pain beyond imagining.

And she delivered it too.

She didn't _just_ kill him.

She made him cry, and beg for death as she ripped him apart bit by tiny bit. His mind and body were beyond damaged and broken by the time she was done with him. And then, just when they thought that it was all going to end and she was finally going to grant him the mercy of death.

She let him live. _Irreparably broken_. And she walked away from him. Leaving him to enjoy what was left of his 'life' while he could.

And while it wasn't exactly something that Toshi could approve of, it was a form of cruelty that he could certainly understand. After all, how many times had he come across horrors akin to the what she had experienced when she had lost her family and wanted blood for it?

The answer was; too many times.

Casting a glance at Shota, he saw his friend frowning slightly as he seemed to mull over what he'd just seen. And he couldn't help but wonder if Shota still wanted to save her. Toshi himself understood the need for vengeance, probably more than most pro-hero's did.

He may not have liked nor condoned what Ichigo had done to her families murderer, but it didn't really matter now since it was over and done.


	8. Chapter 8

Izuku couldn't really make sense of what he was feeling.

There was simply too much going on in his head to really make sense of it all as Mila finally removed her hand from Ichigo's head and cut off the memories with the girl walking away from the broken form of the one who had killed her family.

The moment that the slightly younger version of her vanished, he couldn't help but let his emerald eyes seek her out. She was slumped over in the chair with her eyes closed as if she were asleep. Which she might very well have been considering the pills that Mila had given her to help her relax.

Speaking of, the woman was standing next to the chair looking down at Ichigo with a sad and pained expression as tears rolled down her face.

He couldn't imagine what was going through her mind. Not right then at least. But he couldn't help but maybe hope that the woman wouldn't judge the girl too harshly. Izuku knew that he couldn't.

He also knew that if he'd ever seen his mom and Kaa-chan killed in front of him, he would have likely gone utterly ballistic with rage. If such an event ever happened to him then he doubted very much that _anyone_ , including All Might, would even be able to stop him from doing something similar to what Ichigo had done.

Though he was uncertain that he would have let such a horrible person live like she had. To him, the fact that she had stayed her hand and not killed the man meant something deep and profound.

She'd taken her vengeance. And it had been brutal and cruel. But the fact that she had let him live, even while beyond any hope of recovery- it wasn't just an act of cruelty.

It was also a twisted form of _mercy_.

She hadn't just broken him for the sake of breaking him, despite having plenty of reasons too.

He had a feeling that she had done so while thinking of the future. He felt that she had destroyed the man to prevent _others_ from falling prey to his madness and bloodlust as well. She had broken him so badly that he would never bother to even _try_ and hurt anyone again.

It was simply beyond him now.

And while she had done so in a terrible fashion... He still believed that she'd displayed a great feat of strength that not many others would bother with in her shoes. And that just made her even more _amazing_ to him.

Even at her absolute worst, she was still merciful to those that didn't deserve it.

He started to take a step towards her when he felt a large hand settle on one of his shoulders and tensed up thinking that one of his teachers would probably try to warn him away from her after seeing all of that and was surprised to hear Toshi whisper, "Don't judge her harshly young Midoriya. People do horrible things everyday in the name of those that they love."

He didn't say anything and simply nodded his head as the hand was removed, allowing him to move away from the others. He walked over to Ichigo like one approached a feral animal. With a bit of caution, yet enough determination to not give in and back down if said animal should lash out.

He needn't have bothered.

The second that he was close enough, he bent down a little bit to check on her and frowned when he saw her sleeping and then glanced up at Mila. "Is she okay?"

"This has been... _draining_. Not just physically but emotionally as well. So it isn't all that unusual for someone to fall asleep after something like this." She said as she wiped at her eyes with her hands.

Izuku nodded his head in understanding, despite knowing that she couldn't see the action and then gently and tentatively reached out to brush some of Ichigo's hair back from her face.

She looked...like she was at peace for the moment. Her face was relaxed, her breathing deep- yup, she was asleep alright.

"Uh...S-Sensei?" He called out to both of his teachers. The two men stopped conversing with Todoroki and Iida for a moment and both turned to him.

"What is it, Midoriya?" Aizawa asked. Wondering what the boy wanted but once he glanced past him to the girl, he finally understood. "Is she asleep?" He felt like he should ask the question before he even realized that he had.

The phone call that he had made earlier was to a lawyer who handled his legal affairs for him. And he had called to see if he could secure some papers on the girl, naming her his ward. Which he knew was going to be difficult given the fact that he didn't know a lot about her. But there were ways around that.

Not all of them were entirely legal, but he wasn't going to bother mentioning that around Toshinori since he'd likely scowl at him and lecture him on the... _wrongness_ of a pro-hero resorting to such things. Despite the fact that Shota was only using his resources from his job.

At which point he would have to remind the blond about his _illegal_ bootleg movie collection just to shut him up.

The papers that his lawyer would be collecting for him to name her as his ward, would take a few days. And once he had them and signed them they would last until she was eighteen.

If they were lucky.

And even if they weren't...it didn't really matter. The bottom line was that the girl was a mess. And she needed the stability of a home and family to help her heal. And since Toshi would be nothing but a doting dad- it was up to him to take her in and raise him just like he was raising his problem children students.

He'd share her with Toshi on the weekends on his days off when she was driving him crazy.

Until then he was demoting him to weird uncle status.

"Do you know where she lives?" He asked after a moment. The fact that she was asleep right now was probably a good thing. With the papers currently in limbo and such, it would make moving her back to his home easier. All they would have to do is collect her things.

If she had any to begin with.

Mila hesitated for a moment before nodding her head. "There's an apartment complex about a half mile from here. She stays there. Apartment one hundred and six."

Shota nodded his head and looked at Toshi and the boys. They would have to go and collect Ichigo's things for him since he'd be moving her back to his place for the time being to wait for her to wake up so that he could explain things to her.

"Toshi, would you and the boys go and collect Ichigo's things." It wasn't a question given the pointed look sent in the blondes direction as he started to open his mouth to...argue? Before quickly snapping his mouth shut and nodding his head.

"Sure. We'll just-"

"Actually, Yagi-sensei-" Izuku interrupted him. "I'll help Aizawa-sensei with Ichigo and meet you all at the apartment once I'm done."

Toshi and Shota both gave Izuku a weird look. Almost as if they were uncertain about how to react to the boy's suggestion. Neither of them wanted to simply tell him no.

Not with the protective way he was standing close to the girl.

"Alright, Izuku. You can help." Shota finally said since Toshi looked a little bit at a loss at the moment. Izuku nodded his head and bent down so that he could slip one of his arms around Ichigo's back and his other underneath her knees and lifted her up out of the chair.

Once he had her up, he carefully shifted his grip on her a tad so that he could make her more comfortable against his chest before then looking to his sensei who was watching him with an oddly knowing look. Before muttering something underneath his breath about 'problem children and their girlfriends' and made him wonder what he was talking about as he followed his sensei out of the room.


	9. Chapter 9

"Aizawa-sensei?" Izuku asked tentatively as the two of them walked down the street back towards the hospital where Awizawa's car was located.

"Hn?" Shota hummed, noting his problem student's oddly questioning tone and wondered what the boy wanted.

"What are you going to do with Ichigo?" Izuku finally asked after a small length of time. Shota cast the boy a slightly frustrated/fond look before slowly replying.

"I'm going to take her home and let her rest. And then once she wakes up, we're both going to sit down and have a chat." Shota said after a heartbeat or two.

Izuku frowned at his words for a second and then cast a look over his shoulder, in the direction that Toshi and Iida and Todoroki had gone. Wondering why they weren't heading in the other direction if his sensei was taking her home before he slowly realized what Aizawa had meant.

"You're taking her home with you, sensei?"

"Yeah. I called my lawyer earlier to see if he could get some legal documents so that Ichigo will be my ward until she turns eighteen."

"Really?" Izuku asked in a bewildered tone as he looked at him. Shouta merely hummed and nodded his head before the boy exclaimed, "That's awesome Awizawa-sensei! You're a really good teacher so you'll be a really good dad-" Shota didn't let him get any further that that before he looped part of his scarf around the boy's mouth to shut him up while he hissed at him in embarrassment.

"I am not in any way a _dad_! Don't call me that again!"

Izuku merely smiled at him from behind the scarf as his chest vibrated with laughter causing the older man to literally peel his lips back from his teeth and _growl_ at him in warning before slowly removing his scarf from his face.

Still, Izuku had that damned smile on his face as he asked, "If she isn't supposed to call you that, then what should she call you?"

"Aizawa-sensei." Shota said automatically. After all it was the only name and title that he was really comfortable with. However Izuku seem to think that was a bad idea and even said as much, causing the man to turn to him and demand to know why he thought such a thing.

The boy decided to jokingly demonstrate, causing the man's face to absolutely _burn_ with embarrassment once he realized just how dirty the name and title sounded coming from the boy's falsetto voice.

"Fine. She can call me Shota-sensei then."

Izuku tested the name out and tacked on a husky sounding 'sensei' at the end for funsies and watched as the man practically looked torn between the need to laugh, cry and to maybe murder him as he gritted out, "Fine. She can call me... _dad_."

Izuku shot him a brilliant smile as Shota tried his absolute best _not_ to give in to the temptation of maybe running the brat over with his car once they reached it.

* * *

Toshinori and the boys stood in the small living room of Ichigo's home, looking around the place in utter shock and horror. To say that the girl's home was a hovel was an understatement of gross proportions.

He'd already had to stop young Todoroki from setting the apartment on fire _twice_! It was simply that horrible.

There was evidence of mice, cockroaches, and _other_ non-sanitary things- not excluding unwashed people, drugs, and recently used needles and such- all over the place! _How could the girl have lived in such a terrible conditions?_ He wondered as he subtly cleared his throat and inched a little bit further into the room and cast another look around.

"Stay here," He said to the kids, not wanting them to go any further into this...this mess than absolutely necessary. He didn't want to have to explain to their families how they got lockjaw or something if he did let them come in any further. "And don't touch anything either." He said in a harsh tone from over his shoulder as he moved quickly and silently down the hall to the one bedroom.

Casually taking note that the girl didn't have much of anything in the place, thank god. So that mean that there would be little in need of collecting. Reaching the bedroom, he quietly pushed the door open and looked inside.

He wasn't sure exactly what he was expecting to find, but an empty room wasn't it. Was it weird that he was disappointed by the lack of furniture and such? The only thing that he did find, was a couple of duffle bags lying on the floor in the corner of the room.

And since there was little else for him to riffle through... Then he would simply go through those and see if there was anything that she might need.

Shuffling closer to the two large bags, he dropped to one knee next to them both and slowly unzipped the first one. Part of his was just slightly worried about what he would find.

Like...girl's underwear or something.

At this point, even if he did find some- he was likely to throw them across the room anyways since he wasn't sure if she had the chance to wash anything.

However what he found in the duffle, was anything but clothing of any kind.

Frowning ever so slightly, he reached inside and picked up a stack of crisp bills neatly tied together by a rubber band and took a moment to flip through them and count them. In his hand alone, he held several thousand dollars. And if the whole duffle bag was full of nothing but money... Then she had several billion dollars here.

Going through it a little bit more thoroughly, he managed to pull out almost five point ten billion dollars in bills before then turning his attention to the other bag and deciding to go through it.

_Holy shit!_

It was full of money too.

Another five point three billion as far as he could tell. And only a small portion of it was smaller bills. Which she probably used to pay for food and other things including the rent to this hovel.

Sitting back on his heels for a moment, he scrubbed his face with his hands and wondered what the hell she had been doing in such a horrible place if she had this kind of cash since she obviously had more than enough to buy/rent a much better place than this one. Not to mention furniture and other things.

He was about to pull out his phone and text Shota that he was taking in a heiress when he happened to glance down and saw something peeking out of the side pocket of one of the bags, and reached out and pulled the thing out. It was an open letter of some kind addressed to Ichigo.

Turning it over in his hands for a moment he silently debated on whether or not he should read the contents, but upon thinking over it maybe having a possible explanation for all of the cash in both of the bags- he went ahead and slipped the piece of paper out of the envelope and let his eyes scan the contents.

Sure enough, Ichigo was a heiress.

Upon her families deaths she had inherited quite a bit of money, land, estates, and other things. The most disturbing thing about the fact that she had so much money at the moment in the duffle bags, was the fact that it barely scratched the surface of her inheritance.

She probably had more than enough money to live on for several lifetimes regardless of what she did in life. Which...was somewhat of a relief, really.

It meant that Shouta wouldn't have to worry so much about being able to take care of her financially. It also mean that she had more than enough to take care of any expenses that might pop up. Like her upcoming hospital bill.

The letter also stated that what she had at present was all she would get until she was at least eighteen. Once she was of age, everything would be willed over to her to do with as she saw fit.

Humming as he stuffed the letter back in the envelope and then shoving it back in it's previous hiding place, he started to repack both bags.

This was good. Really it was. But it was also very, very _bad_ since it meant that Shota would not only have to open several bank accounts for her and oversee her spending habits... Something that the man was sure to stress about often. But it also meant that his friend would have to take her shopping for the necessities that she obviously lacked at the moment.

Clothing, hygiene items, soaps, lotions, make-up, shoes- He could hear Shota yelling at him now and couldn't help but wonder how the man would fare with taking her bra or pad shopping.

He was betting that he wouldn't fare well.

But more than that...he would bet that Shota wouldn't like the amount of attention that Ichigo's money would get him and the girl. Especially once people found out that she had a fortune with more to come.

Shota's work as a pro-hero was best done outside of the public eye. So taking the girl in was bound to cause him more problems that anyone intended.

Sighing as he finally finished repacking the money away, he quietly zipped the bags up and then picked them both up and then turned on his heel and walked off to find the kids. He only half expected Todoroki to still be trying to set the place afire.

Luckily he wasn't disappointed to find Iida trying to stop him when the two froze where they were and looked at him like deer caught in the headlights of a mac truck as he brushed by them and absently said, "Go ahead and set it on fire." Earning a dumbfounded look from Iida and a slightly gleeful one from the other boy as flames sprung to life in his hand.

Toshi would make sure that they pulled the fire alarm on the way out. Shota just couldn't know about his lapse in judgement seeing as the man wouldn't let him live it down.


	10. Chapter 10

The good news about burning the apartment down, aside from the fact that no one actually _died_ , was that Todoroki had noticed an official paper somewhere stating that everyone _had_ to vacate the building within thirty days so that it could be demolished.

So no one really cared that it went up in flames with the exception of the drug addicts. And Toshi managed to con them into going to rehab by offering to pay for them to 'live' elsewhere without telling them that he was sending them to rehab centers.

He figured that it would be for the best if that was a surprise for now.

If anything, the only person really bothered about the building going up like kindling, was Iida. And he was understandably upset at being an accessory to a crime if the fact that he was currently crying meant anything at all.

Sighing, Toshi handed one of the duffle bags to Todoroki, who was still staring at the burning building with wide eyes. Because apparently he hadn't expected the place to go up in a fireball of destruction in under 0.2 seconds flat.

"Is this your first time committing an act of arson?" Toshi asked him after several moments of trying to calm Iida down. Todoroki turned his head to look at him and an irked expression crossed his young face as he retorted.

"Can it really be considered an act of arson if I'm doing the community a favor? That place should have been knocked down ages ago! And Ichigo-" Toshi's eye brows rose a little bit as he said the girl's name as the boy flushed a little bit and then looked back at the flames and simply said, "That place wasn't fit for people to live in."

Which Toshi took to mean, It wasn't fit for _Ichigo_ to live in.

It was adorable how tied in knots the kids were over the girl. However...

"You have competition, kid." Toshi deadpanned thinking of Izuku and how he had been acting, and received a slight glower from the boy. His boy's were already smitten.

And frankly Toshi wasn't all that sure that he could blame them for what they were feeling. Young miss Kurosaki was literally a hero's wet dream.

Not his, mind you. His health couldn't take having the girl around for terribly long without his life draining from him. No- she wasn't his wet dream but she was obviously young Midoriya and Todoroki's though. And though he could only guess on the reasons this was so for Todoroki. Izuku was much easier to figure out.

She was alone in the world. _Damaged_. She had fought everyday for years and had seen, felt, and experienced things that even most pro-hero's would never see, feel or experience.

Himself included.

To young Izuku, this meant that she was in desperate need of someone to protect her. Especially since no one had really ever tried to before. As far as he was concerned, she _needed_ someone.

And if he could be that someone, then that was all the better. She had fought for herself and others since she was much younger. Izuku would probably feel that the world owed her peace for once.

And he would run himself into the ground to give her that.

Toshi just hoped that she appreciated what he was already willing to do for her. Whereas he and Todoroki would have to sit down with the boy's dad and have a _looong_ chat later about the boy being such a little fire bug. Hopefully his dad would be able to help him curb the whole 'arson' habit by taking him out to burn some places down legally.

If nothing else then this whole fiasco could be written off as a mutual learning experience for all of them.

"Come on boys. Let's go and find Aizawa and Izuku." Toshi said as soon as he heard sirens sounding from a little way's away from their location. Todoroki didn't complain as he moved away from the remains of the building. Iida however had to be tossed over the other boy's shoulder and carried away while screaming.

The drama queen.

* * *

Shota picked the three up almost a block from the hospital and just knew that something had gone terribly, terribly awry. Partially due to Iida's sobbing. And partially because Todoroki's face was oddly devoid of any expression.

Not only that but Toshi was feigning innocence as he buckled himself up in his seat.

"What did you do?" Shota demanded once they were on the road knowing that Toshi would have no choice to tell him what he'd done or _else_.

"I didn't do anything." Toshi lied right about the time Iida started yelling, " _He's lying!_ He and Todoroki-" He was cut off by said boy reaching over and slapping a hand over his mouth while Izuku looked on worriedly and hugged Ichigo tightly against his side.

The hand that had been previously resting on her shoulder, subtly moved up to cover her head just in case his friends decided to start throwing punches.

Shota was so startled by the sudden noise in the back of his car that he jerked the wheel a little bit, resulting in Toshi hitting his head on the passenger side window with a loud thump and a yelp. He quickly righted the vehicle before they wound up in an accident in the opposite lane and gave the kids a quick, warning glance from over his shoulder before then checking on Ichigo and Izuku.

Both of whom were fine, _thank god_.

He'd never live with himself if his adopted kid died on his first day as a 'dad'.

"If either of you wake the girl up, I'll run you over when I drop you off at your homes," He growled as both Todoroki and Iida suddenly fell utterly silent and slowly pulled away from one another and simply glared at each other from their own respective seats. "How are you feeling Toshi?"

"My head hurts." The blond hissed.

"Alright. So you want to tell me what Iida was yelling about?"

"No."

"Yes!"

"Shut up or I'll see you in detention _later_." Toshi growled from between gritted teeth as he shot the teen a dark look. Iida opened his mouth to argue and then snapped it shut again and looked over at Izuku helplessly and asked in a hushed tone,

"He can't actually do that can he? I mean, we aren't even at school."

Izuku shrugged and started to comb his fingers through Ichigo's silken hair in an effort to distract himself. He didn't understand why everyone had to be so weird all the time. But he supposed that they put the 'fun' in dysfunction.

All too soon, Aizawa started dropping people off. Starting with Toshinori because he was at least partially concerned that the man may have gotten an concussion when he'd hit his head. Also, if he really did decide to run any of the kids over, he couldn't have Toshi around to witness it.

It would upset his delicate sensibilities.


	11. Chapter 11

Luckily, he didn't have to run over Todoroki or Iida.

They were so weirdly well behaved that they must have taken his threat to heart. Izuku though, he'd gladly run him over. Especially when after dropping off the other two, he'd gone straight to Midoriya's place to drop him off only to find that he had a little bit of a problem once he got there.

Izuku was _cuddling_ his sleeping...not-daughter in his lap!

Growling in annoyance, Shota did what any rational man, stepping into the role of a parent, would do. He grabbed an old magazine sitting beside him in the front seat and he rolled it up and smacked the boy with it as if he were an untrained dog, and growled at him to get the fuck out of his car.

Izuku did so.

But very, very _slowly_ since he had to remove and carefully rearrange Ichigo's body from his lap to the seat and then refasten her belt for safety. Really it was an entire process and Shouta wanted nothing more than to smack him with the rolled up magazine again.

However it wasn't until he saw the boy kiss the girl's cheek before moving away from her that his blood pressure really went through the roof. He swung open his car door and hopped out of the vehicle so quickly that it was a wonder he didn't trip, fall, injure or even give himself whiplash.

And he had the boy hog tied in another blink and then carted his crazy little ass up to his family apartment where he left him there after knocking on the door.

The ride back to his place from there was fairly peaceful. Even after he got a text from Toshi about the stuff in the girl's duffle bags.

Which he _did_ check out for himself. And yes, he did have questions.

A few running along the lines of Toshi's previous question about why she had been living in a hovel? And maybe a few others that he felt he needed to ask.

And he was just a bit moderately impressed not only by the fact that she hadn't gone crazy with the money and spent it all like other kids her age would have. After all, wasn't clothing, a _clean_ and safe place to live and such non-optional for a kid? Especially girls?

Weren't there hygiene issues that tended to pop up when girl's didn't have specific things?

He was a pro-hero and got a regular government paycheck for quiet a bit. And he rarely touched what was in his checking or saving's accounts out side of immediate necessities like food, clothing, replacement gear for work, and rent for his apartment.

And he still made just a bit less than what she had in her bags. Still...he was _impressed_. Especially with what little bit he already knew about her. But then, even in the few memories that they had seen of the inside of her home, she hadn't had much in the way of things.

Her bedroom had been eerily clean and bare for a teenage girl.

She'd had a bed, a desk, a week worth of clothing, a pair of shoes, two jackets, and a chair and that was it. No posters, no books, no radio... He couldn't help but wonder if that was a normal thing for her or if all of her time fightng and such had sort of turned her into a survivalist?

Would she even be comfortable in his home? He wondered as he pulled up to his building and slowly parked his car. He could already tell form going through her duffle bags that she didn't have any clothing or anything to wear for the next few days.

So once she woke up and they talked, he'd have to take her shopping.

And of course he wasn't going to do it _alone_. He planned to drag Toshi and Midoriya along to help carry her things while he waited in the safety and comfort of his car for them to return.

He'd let those two deal with the embarrassment of bra and panty shopping.

Although, if he were smart about it- maybe he'd wrangle a girl or two to go with them and keep Midoriya in line. After all, the boy had already stolen a kiss from Ichigo while she slept...

There was no telling what the little shit would do if he got to go panty/bra shopping with her. But he shuddered to think what he might stupidly suggest to her. And while he didn't question what Ichigo might do to him if he really crossed a line- Actually, yeah, he was going to see if he could get a girl or two to go shopping with her too.

Maybe Present Mic's girl? They lived close by. So having her go with Ichigo to get stuff would actually be pretty helpful. She could help Ichigo with the girly stuff- that Midoriya should stay, far, far, _far_ away from if he wanted to keep living.

And simply leave the less girly, everyday stuff to Izuku and Toshi.

Sighing, he leaned back in his seat a little bit and rubbed his eyes as he tried to think of everything that needed to be covered in such a short amount of time.

He needed to ask her about her quirk. See where she wanted to go to school. Because if it was left up to him, he'd enroll her in UA where he could keep an eye on her. But he wasn't all that sure she would be able to handle it due to her PTSD and stuff.

What if she was taking part in a training exercise and she had an episode and got badly or even irreparably hurt? Would he be able to live with himself if that happened?

Hero training was no joke after all, a large number of the kids- mostly second and third year student- that went to U.A had to sign _waivers_ just in case there was an accidental death while training during regular classes or taking an extremely hands on test.

And while the school was pretty good about not killing the kids. It _still_ sometimes happened.

It was definitely something worth thinking on considering her current mental health problems and her reckless nature. Still...he would have to bring it up at some point since he obviously couldn't let her just skip her education.

There was also her current therapist. He would have to look into him/her and see if they were legit. Cause he very much doubted that Ichigo would know if someone was really conning her about her health issues.

People like them preyed on the uneducated and uninformed. So...it was best to check and make sure that things there were good. And even if they were, he'd probably still want her to go to a different person. Maybe someone a little more experienced with pro-hero's and their mental issues would be able to help her get better.

And then there were meds.

He didn't think Toshi bothered to check, but did she take meds? Were they real meds or were they placebo's?

This was also something that he'd have to look into as well as opening a bank account for her and possibly even a savings account. And at some point he may even need to look into getting a bigger place for the two of them to live so that they didn't always wind up tripping over one another and stuff.

After all, as great as his place was- it was also meant for one- maybe one adult and a toddler/small house pet. There really wasn't much room at all there. So he'd definitely have to look into that if either of them were going to have any privacy at all.

The only problem was did he want a home, an bigger apartment? What would be the better investment here? He was pretty sure that a house might be better suited for them both.

It would certainly have enough space to allow some personal freedoms that his apartment didn't.

Like, for example- say he met a woman that he wanted to bring home for...uh... _stuff_. The last thing he'd want is Ichigo walking in on the two of them and maybe being traumatized.

She was a teenager after all, and he for one didn't particularly like the idea of accidentally walking in on her while she was showering or something.

That would be embarrassing as hell.

Plus along with the perks of a house was also the perk of gaining a yard, maybe a pet or two- he was allergic to anything that wasn't a feline. But maybe Ichigo would be fine with that.

And maybe she might even like gardening? If it was something that she showed interest in then he could find her some nice flower bulbs/seeds and even flowering trees. Maybe a couple of magnolias and red maples and stuff? Maples didn't have flowers that he knew of, but the red leaves were beautiful.

And he'd let her just have fun playing in the dirt for as long as she wanted once she had them.

Sighing again, he reached out and opened his door and then gently shut it as he opened the back door and spied the girl still curled up where Izuku had put her. "Come on problem child. Let's get you inside and get you comfortable. It's going to be a long night for us both." He said to her as he gently tugged her up and out of the vehicle just enough to be able to scoop her up.

Once he had her in his arms he absently noted that she was far lighter than she should be. Even for someone who had eaten three large platters of food earlier.

Filing the information away in the back of his mind, he carefully adjusted his hold on her as he kicked the car door closed with his foot and started walking.

* * *

He was at home for about an hour before he decided to call Present Mic- Hizashi, and ask him about borrowing his kid sometime tomorrow.

Naturally, once Hizashi heard that he had a girl at his place in need of clothing and stuff, he'd been so curious that he'd actually shown up to see said mystical creature.

"Holy shit- Shota! What did you do? Kidnap the poor thing?" Hizashi asked in an overly dramatic, hushed tone from where he was standing. His eyes never once leaving Ichigo's sleeping figure. So of course he missed the slight cringe his last question elicited from his dark haired friend because of the semi accuracy of his words.

Shota was under no delusions about Ichigo being very happy about being practically 'kidnapped' since she'd not been able to give anyone permission to remove her from her home and such.

So he was already slightly anticipating _some_ sort of a fight/form of resistance on her part, against him trying to keep her there. But in all seriousness, at this point all he could do was appeal to her sense of reason and hope for the best since he knew that he wouldn't be able to take her physically.

"Really man, what the hell are you doing with a kid anyways?" Hizashi asked as he finally moved away from Ichigo and joined him in the kitchen where he was busy fixing some coffee. "Are you babysitting someone's girl or something?"

"Her family is dead, Hizashi." Shota finally said. His tone laced with irritation as the man's eyes widened in understanding and he shot the girl a pitying look for a moment as he went on to say. "I've contacted my lawyer in the hopes of getting some papers drawn up and making her my ward."

"Really?"

"Really." Shota said as he turned off his coffee maker and then grabbed two mugs. As loathe as he was to share his dark delicious coffee with his friend, he wasn't going to get rid of him anytime soon after stating his intentions like that.

"Oh man," Hizashi said as he scrubbed his face with his hands as if he were trying to clear his head or something. "I- That's awesome Shouta! I mean, I never really saw you as a dad-figure. But if anyone can manage. You can." He said with a grin as Shouta set a steaming mug down in front of him.

"You really think so?" Shota felt the urge to ask. Not because he was having any second thoughts or anything. But because he was in uncharted territory here and had very limited experience with kids outside of work.

"Yeah. I mean, you're an awesome teacher. And despite how you usually seem, you actually like kids. And plus she's a teen right? You're job raising her is already half done. I mean, sure you still have the dating years ahead of you, but it shouldn't be that _bad_ depending on her personality."

"You might have a point there. But there are other things that you don't know, Hizashi. Things that could make raising her incredibly difficult."

"Like what?"

"S-She...uh...she's been fighting since she was a little kid," He said, watching Hizashi's expression change ever so slightly. His happy expression dulling and turning worried. "And I don't mean bad behavior or anything. I mean she was literally fighting in life or death situations with little to know back up or training since she was eleven? Maybe twelve?"

Shota frowned for a moment and wondered if his guess was accurate before going on to say, "She's seen, felt, and experienced things that most children are sheltered from since childhood. And I won't lie to you and say that she doesn't have blood on her hands. She does. It's impossible to be thrust into such situations and _not_ have blood on her hands. But...I know that she always tried to avoid that if she could. I-It just didn't always work."

Hizashi seemed to mull over his words as he continued speaking, "No one ever tried to help her. Maybe a few tried to back her up. But she's enhanced, Hizashi. Her fighting ability is...possibly on a whole different level than All Might's. And because of that- people relied on her to save them every time something happened. Not a single one of those people ever tried to keep her out of things or stop her or even send her home where she would be safe. Her thoughts, her feelings- none of them were ever taken into consideration. And she lost _pieces_ of herself that children shouldn't lose until they're old and grey!"

Hizashi was silent as Shota took a deep shuddering breath. His distress and frustration over the careless way that the girl had been treated by her 'friends' finally bleeding through to the surface of his mind as Hizashi finally asked him, "Where were the pro-hero's? Why didn't they stop everything and protect her?"

Shota blinked once, twice, and then pressed his lips together in a thin line and just looked at him before saying angrily, "That's a damned good question. And it's one that I intend to ask her later." And he would.

He just wasn't sure that he'd like her answer once she gave it to him.


	12. Chapter 12

Ichigo woke up while Shota was trying to cook dinner for them both and was currently standing with his back to the living room, scowling at the meal he was attempting to fix. Now to be perfectly clear, he could cook.

He was a bachelor after all. And being able to have at least some basic cooking skills was essential to his survival. However, be that as it may, he couldn't cook _well_.

So here he was, scowling down at the stuff he was trying to fix. Because he was pretty sure that Ichigo's dietary needs were pretty significantly different from his own and she probably wouldn't do well on an all ramen diet. And wondering what the hell he'd done wrong as far as the broth went.

Sure it didn't taste terrible. But it was significantly...sweeter? than it should be. And he was at least half certain that if the girl tried eating much of it, she'd get sick or something.

She needed stuff that was high in calories.

So he'd been attempting to make curry since her memories seemed to suggest that she liked it.

However he'd gotten the amount of spices put in the curry mix- because he liked making it from scratch like his mom used too- _wrong_. Also, he wouldn't swear to it entirely, but he was pretty sure that he also accidentally added too much water to it too.

To thicken it he would have to either dump it out and try again or boil it for a while and run the risk of ruining it entirely.

So naturally he didn't even notice that she was awake until she walked up behind him and stopped right behind him. Close enough to feel the air stir, and cause him to stiffen a little bit before asking curiously, "How long have you been awake?"

She made a humming sound in acknowledgement of his question and peered around his shoulder at the...curry soup? before she even bothered to reply.

"Long enough to see you struggling. What the hell did you do? Invite one of the hospital cooks to come and make something? Or is this how you do you're laundry?"

He turned his head to glance at her and picked up the spoon and got tome of the broth in it and held it out to her so that she could taste it and said, "Ignore the socks. I wore them earlier." As she shot him an amused look that made him smile just a bit. Some of the stress he'd been feeling before slowly melting away thanks to the joke as she carefully took the spoon and tried the broth.

She hummed again and moved around him some without pushing him away and asked, "Where's the spices at?" He pointed towards the spice rack and then moved out of her way a little bit as she took the pot off of the stove and then moved to the sink and ladled some of the excess water out.

Not much, mind you. But enough to help it thicken up easier before placing it back on the stove and then asking him if he had any unsweetened cream.

He blinked and moved to the fridge to check and returned with half a carton of the stuff and watched as she used it and then set the empty carton aside on the counter and then grabbed some of the spices and added some more to the mix and then stirred it before tasting it.

"Here," She said as she held the spoon up for him.

Shota tasted it warily because he wasn't sure what to expect from the stuff after all of that and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually pretty good. It was thickening up. The spices were perfect.

Taking the spoon from her, he motioned with his head for her to move aside some so that he could resume his previous position and tried another spoonful of the broth.

"Damn. This is delicious."

"Happy to please."

He hummed and watched her move back to sit down at the island behind him. And looked pointedly at the rice cooker and then back at him. He got the action easily enough and made quick work of checking to make sure that the rice wasn't under/over cooked while she quietly sniggered at him.

Once that was done, Shota made sure to turn the rice cooker down to prevent any accidentally burning and then looked back at Ichigo, noting that she was oddly relaxed and not bothered by waking up in a strange man's home. And couldn't help but wonder if it was a common occurrence for her.

Of course the moment that that thought slithered through his mind, he decided to put a _stop_ to it if it was. He was too fucking young to raise a pregnant teen mother.

"So..." He said as he leaned back against his counter and crossed his arms over his chest as he studied her. "I guess that we should talk."

Ichigo's look of amusement never faded from her face.

And he wasn't sure if she was trying to feign the emotion to hide what she was really feeling or if she simply didn't consider him much of a threat to her at all.

He supposed that it _could_ have been a little bit of both. Which meant that she had a far better poker face than anybody else that he knew. But whatever. He'd figure her out inevitably. Right?

Clearing his throat after a moment or so, he simply decided to dive in feet first since this was likely to be a _looong_ and upsetting talk for them both.

"I guess that you're probably wondering what your doing in my home." It wasn't a question. But he wasn't all that sure how else to start this talk.

"Something like that." Ichigo said as she propped her chin in her hand and waited patiently for him to continue.

"Earlier today when we were with the others, I called my lawyer to get some papers for me."

"Adoption papers?" Ichigo asked curiously.

"No. No, not that. T-They're papers to make you my ward until you're eighteen. I just...didn't have any time to broach the subject before because of-" Ichigo reached up and tapped her temple with a finger and he did this weird little head duck/nod thing. "Yeah. _That_."

"Alright." Was all Ichigo could think to say. She didn't have anything against being sort of adopted by someone, even if she didn't really know him. She could tell just by looking at him that he was a decent person. And even if he wasn't...it wasn't as if he were really a threat to her.

If he was, she'd snap his neck and then walk away.

She may not necessarily like to do it... But if he was the type of pervy guy that preyed on innocent young girl's then she'd do it for funsies if it would keep him from going after someone else once she left.

"Alright? I was just a bit prepared to fight with you over this. And that's _all_ you have to say? You don't have any questions at all?"

"Tons."

"Like what?" He asked curiously.

"Job?" She asked with another pointed look. He blinked at her for a moment as he realized that she was asking him what his job was and then quickly told her what she wanted to know.

"I'm a pro-hero/school teacher."

"What grade?"

"Do I teach?" He asked for clarification. She smiled at him and nodded. Her eerie neon blue eyes sparkling. "I teach high school. First years mostly. But I'm adaptable and sometimes sub for the other grades."

"You any good?"

"Well, a lot of my students are oddly attached to me...so- I'd like to think so." He said honestly.

"Good man. Now, name?"

"Shota Aizawa."

"Age?"

He opened his mouth to reply and then abruptly snapped it shut and then asked her, "Is knowing that necessary?"

"It is if I'm going to live with you. I'm big on celebrating birthdays."

"O-Oh." He said lamely before telling her what she wanted to know and then threw in his favorite cake flavor as well. She then told him her birthday. But not her favorite cake flavor. Apparently that was something that he'd have to needle her for later.

"Anyways... I have some questions of my own. Stuff about things like school. What kind of school would you like to go to? Are you interested in hero schools? Also what is you're quirk? I already know that you're enhanced. Either way a hero school could help you train to use your abilities better."

"Also, I need to take you shopping tomorrow since this was a spur of the moment thing. And I also need to look into your therapist to make sure that you aren't being scammed and maybe find you better one. Are you on meds? Updated on all of your shots?" He was rambling.

He couldn't help it, he was just a tad bit nervous here since he didn't really know what to do.

Fortunately for him, Ichigo seemed to understand this since she got up and moved around the island so that she could put a hand over his mouth and quiet him before finally saying, "First thing is first. Dinner. Sleeping arrangements. Breakfast and then shopping. And _then_ we'll worry about the rest." He blinked at her from behind her hand as she gently tacked on as she slowly removed her hand and winked at him, "Curry happens to be my favorite food."

She smiled at him as she moved back around the island and then sat back down in her previous seat as he started to grab dishes for their food.

* * *

After dinner, Ichigo had made him sit down at the island with a fresh cup of coffee and had washed the dishes for him. While they played a really, really long and detailed game of _twenty_ _billion_ questions.

Which was strangely not as upsetting as the talk he had anticipated having before.

So he just went with it.

Figuring that since he still didn't know much about her- aside from what he and the others had seen from her memories earlier that day, then it was really the only thing that made sense. She didn't seem to mind it any either.

And he made sure to cover a little bit of everything. Including his school and quirk questions from earlier.

Ichigo answered him as politely and carefully as when he had asked her anything else in need of elaboration. When asked about school, she merely said that she hadn't really bothered to look into anything. Hero school sounded interesting, but she doubted that she would do well there outside of the training classes.

She also mentioned that she didn't _want_ to be a hero. Which was more than just a little bit ironic considering that she already was to a number of people. Her age, gender, and lack of specific life experiences hadn't wiped any of her previous accomplishments away. And likely never would.

But he was pretty sure that she already knew that.

Still, he could understand to some degree why she didn't want to be thrust into the role of a hero again. And he could damn well respect it too. So he made a small deal with her.

If she wanted to try going to hero school to just be trained a little bit better- he would be okay with that. But if she wanted to try a normal school with civilian kids- that would be fine too.

She'd gotten quiet for a little bit as she carefully considered her options before finally saying to give her some time to mull things over.

After that he asked her about her quirk again and was oddly shocked to find out that she didn't have a quirk. She was enhanced, sure. But it was a different sort of evolutionary/mutation or trait that she'd gotten from both of her parents. It _was_ a form of enhancement.

And she could do amazing things with it.

But it wasn't by any definition a quirk.

He was curious about the specifics of what she could do. And made no effort to hide his curiosity. However she was pretty tight lipped about it and would say nothing beyond she was _stronger_ and more _durable_ than the average person.

Aside from that though, she was fairly open about everything else. Her likes, dislikes, specific needs- he found it a little bit odd that she was a little bit of a minimalist. And decided to help her break that particular habit since it was utter none sense for someone her age.

A kid as young as her should have roots.

And not be afraid of settling down somewhere.

He also found out that she liked reading, alternative and early 80-90's music, the colors navy blue, royal and sapphire blue, emerald, mint green and lilac purple. She liked baggy clothing because she was covered in scars and it was simply easier to wear them than explain to people with staring problems that she was a war survivor.

She disliked being cold. Cats were awesome- he wholeheartedly agreed with her there. She didn't really like make-up or really girly things.

He could only partially understand this since she was very pretty on her own without it. However it was her slightly anxious sounding explanation about how she didn't _like_ the unwanted attention that make-up caused her, that he really understood.

After all, Ichigo had grown up as a fighter.

She probably didn't like getting attention as a girl in any shape, form, or fashion. He had to resist the urge to call Midoriya and laugh hysterically at him.

The poor punk would definitely have his work cut out for him if that was the case.

Eventually Ichigo started to get tired, she kept having to smother yawns behind one of her hands. And he checked the clock hanging on his kitchen wall and nearly swore when he noted the time.

They'd been talking since eight pm. And it was currently three thirty am.

No wonder she was tired.

Deciding that the two of them needed to call it a night so that they could be less rabid in the morning when they went shopping for her stuff, he pushed his half full coffee cup away from him and stood up and motioned for her to follow him as he walked out of the kitchen.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so Hizashi doesn't actually have a daughter in the MHA manga. But for the sake of the story, he's going to be adopting Kyoka Jiro from his ex... Jiro's mom. 
> 
> So just go with it.

The next morning began at ten thirty.

Which was out of the norm for Shota, especially on a weekend. However since he needed to do shit today he'd rolled out of bed early, called Nemu and explained what he was doing and what was going on with Ichigo- _medically_ \- and got a few days off from work to help him get everything settled.

Which was great since he had a ton of things that he needed to pack into a sort of long-ish weekend? Just to get anything done. So, he'd changed his daily plans a little bit before calling Toshi and _informing_ him that he was being drafted as his underling for the next few days.

Toshi thought he was kidding.

Until he managed to have him escorted to his apartment after his morning run by a friendly police officer with nothing to do. The guy had even brought Toshi up to his door and knocked and then asked if he was his runaway minion.

It was great.

Well, to Shouta anyways. Toshi had been a little bit busy telling the man that he was innocent of any wrong doing up until he was pulled into Shouta's apartment. Now the man was sitting in his kitchen fuming over a nice cup of coffee while he called Midoriya and let him know that he was being drafted for today's shopping trip.

The boy had been weirdly happy to help. Which Shota suspected had everything to do with the fact that Ichigo would more or less be without parental supervision- aside from Toshi's presence anyways- during her outing.

He was standing there with a dark look on his face for the moment, _scowling_ at his phone. Trying to creatively imagine a way to throttle the boy from where he was as he heard Toshi finally take a deep breath and ask, "How did things go with Ichigo, last night?"

His head shot up at his...not-daughter's name and he smiled ever so slightly. His present aggitation and desire for Midoriya's untimely demise partially fading for the moment.

"Things went surprisingly well. She's much easier to reason with than a lot of the kids we teach. And she can cook too Toshi!"

Toshinori blinked owlishly at him for a moment as a smile crept across his face. "Is that so?"

"Yes. I tried making my mom's curry last night, and it was all wrong and she _fixed_ it! It was actually eatable. And it was delicious!"

Toshi chuckled at his child-like expression. Shota only ever got that expression around his mother when he went to visit. Oh! And Cats. He got that look around them too. So having him get the same look that reserved for so few things, while speaking of Ichigo, was nice.

It meant that he actually liked having her around.

And in such a short time too. _Impressive._

"I'm glad that she can cook. Maybe she can teach you a few things." Toshi suggested since it was close to his weekly dinner night with Shouta. Usually he would come over once a week or so, depending on what was going on. And Shota would try to cook him something in the hopes that he'd actually be able to eat it.

However with the man not being a very good cook, Toshi usually ended up sick. Still, Shota kept trying because he knew that Toshi was losing far more weight than he should, even with his old injury. And it worried him.

It worried Toshi too. But there was very little that he could do about it.

Shota seemed to mull over his words about Ichigo teaching him how to cook better and nearly shouted aloud, startling Toshi as he realized something. "Maybe Ichigo could cook a few things for you that you could try."

Toshi looked at his friend as if he were crazy.

It was bad enough that Shota stressed about his dwindling health and ability to eat. He didn't want that kind of pressure placed on the girl. It'd hurt her when she failed! He was about to open his mouth to tell him _no, absolutely not_ \- when Ichigo walked into the room.

He froze up. And for all his mischief making mere second's ago, Shota did too as he looked over at the girl.

They had both thought that the girl was still asleep for the moment, but it looked like she had gotten up a little while ago and taken a shower. And then somehow managed to steal a overly large shirt from Shouta's closet to wear.

"Making yourself at home?" Shota asked. His expression carefully blank.

The girl looked a little bit uncomfortable with them staring at her and gave him a small wry grin as her face turned a fetching shade of pink. "Sorry. I thought that I'd clean my clothes before we left today. And I grabbed this because...ya know."

He did know.

Still...she looked strangely good in his shirt.

Thankfully she had grabbed an old one that he simply wasn't all that motivated to throw away. The large button down fell well past her waist and nearly to her knees. The dark color was nice on her too.

She looked good in black. He absently noted as he waved her into the kitchen.

"It's fine kid. Keep the damn shirt if you like it," He said as she moved a little bit further into the room and smiled at Toshi. "You guys met yesterday but this is my friend and co-worker, Toshinori. But the people who know him really well refer to him as Toshi."

"Hi." She greeted awkwardly.

"Hello." Toshi parroted back in a friendly manner.

"I was wondering if you could do me- well Toshi a favor," Shota started to say. Ichigo didn't say anything as she patiently waited for him to tell her what they had been talking about a few moment's prior. "Ya see, I was sort of bragging about you're cooking skills to Toshi and well... It sort of got me thinking. Toshi here suffered a bad injury several years ago that makes it difficult for him to eat."

Toshi would say this for the girl, she was a pretty quick witted kid to pick up on what Shouta was wanting to ask her. "So you want me to cook him something?" She asked curiously.

"You don't have to, Ichigo." Toshi was quick to tell her as he shot a dark look in Shouta's direction. However the man was ignoring him and Toshi was about to snap at him when Ichigo suddenly moved around the island to where he was sitting and got into his personal space.

"Show me you're injury."

"Huh?"

"Show me you're injury," Ichigo said again before then tacking on. "If I'm going to try cooking for you then I need to understand the nature of your injury. The more knowledge that I have about it- the easier that cooking for you will be." He was still reluctant, however after a few moments of careful deliberation, Toshi slowly lifted his shirt up to show her the injury.

There was something very peculiar about the way that Ichigo intently studied the scar.

Absently muttering underneath her breath, as she did so. Before finally startling him somewhat by very gently running her fingers along the outside and then the inside of the wound. Gently probing it in a manner similar to that of a doctor before finally humming.

A thoughtful expression crossing her face as she slowly removed her hands from his body and then surprised him by telling Shouta that she needed to talk to him really fast about...something _private_.

She didn't elaborate. But then Toshinori was a pretty sharp guy and could easily read between the lines. And it was pretty easy to guess that she intended to speak to him about his injury.

Feeling dread settle like a heavy weight in his stomach he couldn't think of anything that could excuse him from her presence in time to make a run for it as he watched her shoo Shota out of the room and then walked back over to him and pulled out the chair next to him and looked him in the eye and said, "Whoever the doctor was that treated this wound, obviously didn't know what they were doing."

He blinked once, twice- and then opened his mouth only for her to absently reach up and use her index finger to push his jaw closed again as she went on to gently order. "Be quiet and listen to me very carefully, okay." He would have nodded his head, but her finger was still pressing against the underside of his jaw. And her small nail was sharp enough to draw blood if he so much as breathed wrong.

"Now, here is what I know-" Ichigo said as she slowly removed her finger from the underside of his jaw. "This injury while very bad, shouldn't have caused quite this much _damage_ to your insides. In fact a bit of the damage done to your organs was likely unnecessarily done by a scalpel blade. Probably sometime during surgery by someone who was more intent on saving your life than caring overly much by the _quality_ of the life that they saved. It's a mistake that someone new to the medical profession would make. But it does often happen."

Toshi kept his mouth shut since he got the feeling that there was more to this.

"Even a specialist in the medical field would have a really hard time fixing this..." She looked upset and even angry on his behalf. And truthfully even if she wasn't right about what she was telling him, he didn't think she was the type of person to lie about something of this magnitude either. "I can cook some stuff, and even give you a list of things that can help you eat better and probably even regain some weight. Now this is where things will get tricky for you-" He blinked again but continued to listen anyways. Making sure to keep an open mind since she was trying to help him. "I usually don't do this for anyone. But you really seem like you need it if you're going to continue living... because at the rate that you're deteriorating you'll be lucky to make it another year like this."

"Anyways, I have a few very specific abilities. They aren't anything like quirks. But they are useful when someone get's hurt. And in truth, I wouldn't be alive now if it wasn't for all of them." She paused for a moment to take a breath and looked slightly nervous as she tentatively said.

"One of those abilities is a form of absolute regeneration. I can literally tear myself apart, down to the smallest cell- a billion times- and _still_ regenerate organs, muscle, bone, and other things. And I also happen to know how to use it to help people in your present condition."

Toshi felt as if she'd just punched him in the gut.

His heart suddenly leapt up to his throat and it became a little bit difficult to breathe. He got dizzy and had to reach out and put a hand on the island to keep himself from falling out of his seat in shock as she continued speaking.

"I can use it to heal some of the damage. It would make the wound smaller. The hole in your side would become less pronounced. It wouldn't entirely go away, but I can use it to partially regrow your damaged lung and even your stomach. It would help you become healthier. But it would take multiple sessions. Five. Maybe even more. And I need to _know_ whether or not you want to even try it."

He felt his eyes tear up and had to cover his mouth with his hand as he tried, desperately, and failed to stop the feeling of hope that suddenly blossomed in his chest at the mere thought of her being able to help him. And though he wanted to let that feeling flourish- for the moment he was just a bit skeptical that she could do what others- what _doctors_ and various specialists hadn't been able to do.

So he underestimated her and demanded that she _prove_ herself and her ability before he even bothered to think. The expression that flitted across her young face was one of understanding. That quickly changed to determination as she reached out and yanked his shirt back up and told him, "I'll fix your lung first since you're struggling a little bit to breathe correctly. And by the time I'm done- You'll never doubt me again."

She wasn't wrong.

He didn't know what exactly she did. And he didn't really notice much as far as her using her ability on him. All he could really feel once she laid her small hand over his wound was a slightly warm and tingling sensation. There was no glow. Nothing to let him know that she was really doing anything.

For all he knew the warmth and tingling sensation stemmed from the fact that he was a male and she was a female and that was a dangerous place for his mind to go. Especially since she was in Shouta's care and was also under age.

But hey, biology wasn't a rational thing.

The only thing that really let him know that she was working on him was one moment he was breathing just like he had for the last five years. Three shallow breaths to compensate for bigger breaths and the next moment...he could _breathe-_ he could really, really breathe!

He took several deep breaths without experiencing any of the familiar twinges and pain that he usually got. That the shock of it really _did_ cause him to fall out of his chair this time.

He must have freaked Ichigo out when he hit the floor too. Because one moment she was watching him in bemusement and the next she looked scared and was kneeling next to him on the floor with her small hands framing his face and she was trying to get him to _talk_ to her- Tell her what was wrong.

Was he hurting even more?

He tried to open his mouth to tell her that he was fine. Seemingly better than he'd been in years. But she started to panic on him and his voice wasn't working right then.

So she screamed for Shota to call an ambulance and before he could so much as gather his wits, his friend was right there in his personal space trying to get him to talk to him and tell him what the fuck Ichigo was crying about.

He sounded just a mite pissed. But Toshi wasn't sure if he was pissed at him or her.

He supposed that the man's temper was leaning a little bit towards both.

But that wasn't really the terrible part of this incident. No the terrible part was that Hizashi was there with his daughter, Kyoka and the man had Ichigo restrained as if she had done something wrong. Granted, he wasn't being rough on her any. Certainly not like he would be if she were a villain.

But the fact that she was being restrained at all was upsetting to him. And probably to Shota too, though for entirely different reasons.

So Toshi did the only thing that he could think of upon realizing that his voice was finally working again. He shoved Shuta back away from him, jumped to his feet and stormed over to Hizashi and grabbed the poor girl away from the man and told him to _back the fuck off._ And then looked at Shota and quickly explained that she hadn't done anything wrong.

She had simply helped him a little bit with his injury.

The change in Shota's expression was instant. His face went from thunderous to... _relieved_. And then to slightly pained.

He knew that he had just messed up with the girl. And the disappointment on Toshi's face only compounded the horrible feeling squeezing his heart as he quickly got to his feet and started to take a step forward. When he stopped him and gently said, "Give her a little bit to calm down first. She'll be more receptive to hearing you out once she isn't so afraid."

"I-yeah. Sorry."

"I'm not the one that you need to apologize too Shota." Toshi pointed out gently as he steered Ichigo towards the living room so that she could sit down before she fell down. The poor girl was like two seconds away form a full blown panic attack.


	14. Chapter 14

Ichigo barely said two words to anyone after the incident in the kitchen. And Shota was still trying to give her a little bit of space to calm down while trying his damnedest _not_ to have to resort to groveling for his stupid mistake.

Honestly though, at this point if she told him to go jump off a bridge- he'd probably do it because he wanted her to forgive him so badly, and maybe let him explain about _why_ he had acted like he had earlier.

He hadn't meant to act as if she had done anything wrong. Really he hadn't.

He already _knew_ that Ichigo was a nice kid.

But he couldn't help but worry about all of the power that she had at her fingertips. Honestly it was a legitimate concern to him. Especially since he wasn't all that sure that she could _control_ it very well. However accidents did tend to happen, even with the best of kids and intentions.

So while he knew that she wouldn't purposely harm Toshi, he still couldn't help himself from freaking out once he heard her scream for him to call an ambulance.

He had just let Hizashi and Kyoka into the apartment when he'd heard her scream and felt a sliver of fear shoot down his spine. He'd quickly bolted- which had sort of looked oddly like he was running an obstacle course in his living room. He'd jumped lamps, chairs, and even the couch just to get to the kitchen and see what the fuck was going on.

Ichigo was understandably upset over what was wrong. She probably thought that she had killed Toshi or something. And there for a few heartbeats, he had sort of thought the same thing too.

However Toshi had been wide awake. And had been intact as far as he could tell.

He just wasn't saying anything or really reacting to anything at all. Not even the sound of his voice! Which could have indicated that there was something wrong with him internally.

So while Hazashi had grabbed Ichigo in an effort to figure out what was wrong and restrained her to keep her from maybe trying to hurt herself- something that Toshi had already had words with the man about.

Hizashi had closely resembled a kicked puppy before he had left the apartment. Though he _had_ apologized to the girl. Ichigo didn't really say or do anything aside from curtly nod as Kyoka had sat down next to her and tried to help distract her.

She'd gone on a little bit of a tirade about her dad being a hopeless idiot. And gotten flicked on the forehead by the other girl for talking crap about her dad.

Not long after Toshi had separated himself from Ichigo, once he was certain that she wasn't going to have a panic attack on them- he'd grabbed Shota and pulled him outside of the apartment to leave the two kids to bond a little bit and told him exactly what had happened as well as what Ichigo had said to him.

Shota had felt that much worse once he fully understood what had actually happened. And even more, so when Toshi mentioned that she probably didn't like it when people knew about her absolute regeneration ability.

Though he didn't really understand her reason's why.

Gifts like her absolute regeneration could be used in the medical field to do amazing things. Especially if Toshi telling him that he could breathe- like actually honest to god _breathe_ \- without any pain at all was one hundred percent legit. Which he suspected it was since Toshi was the one that she had helped.

Not only that but the blond had also hiked up his shirt to check the injury and they'd both noticed a slight difference in size, width, depth and even a paler coloring to the scarred skin covering the wound.

To say that Shota had been utterly _stupefied_ by the differences was an understatment. He hadn't really known what to think. But Toshi seemed almost totally convinced that the girl was a fucking angel.

And he wasn't the only one who seemed to think that. Midoriya had been making an utter nuisance of himself ever since they picked him up on the way to the mall.

The little punk had even brought Ichigo a medium sized stuffed, white bunny rabbit with big floppy ears. In Shota's opinion, the boy was trying too hard. And the bunny seemed a little bit over the top. But Ichigo had simply taken in and uttered a soft word of thanks and hugged it.

She hadn't let the stupid thing go since.

Pulling into the mall parking lot, it took Shouta several moments to find a nice place to let everyone out. Since he'd slightly changed his plans earlier that morning- he'd decided to drop everyone off while he went to look at houses. He'd managed to find a few online in a decent area close to where he already lived that not only fit his budget but his criteria.

A nice fenced in yard, two maybe three bedrooms, one and a half bathrooms, a spacious living room, and kitchen. If he liked any of them well enough once he saw the inside of them- then he'd go ahead and put a down payment on the house of his choice.

He was also planning to go by the bank and open a checking and savings account for Ichigo so that she wouldn't have to tote those stupid duffle bags everywhere.

Pulling up to the curb, he let everyone pile out of the vehicle and stopped Ichigo as she started to climb out by placing a hand on her arm. "Kid?" She looked at him almost hesitantly. As if she were worried about what she would see when she looked at him.

It was disturbing to him. But even more so that he made her feel that way in the first place.

"I'm an ass," Was really all that he could think to say for a moment. "Anyone that knows me knows this. What happened earlier- I wasn't pissed because you might have hurt Toshi. And I certainly couldn't blame you if you accidentally had. It's just...I was worried. You acted like you'd killed him or something. And it scared me."

"I know." Ichigo said gently. And she really did.

She knew and understood. He didn't owe her any apologies. Really he didn't. He had been afraid, and people did stupid crap when they were afraid.

She didn't hold it against him any since theirs was a new parent/child relationship. And it was only common sense that there were bound to be times where things like this just _happened_.

She wasn't hurt any.

Hell, she wasn't even pissed about it.

"I'm still sorry." Shota finally said. Ichigo gave him a slightly strained smile and gently patted his hand with her other one as she started to climb out of the car again.

"Don't be, I'm not mad about it. I'm just...freaked. S'all." She said as she gently shut her car door and gave him a small finger wave before stuffing her hands in her pant's pockets and slowly walking towards where the others were standing, waiting on her.

Shota sat there watching as Kyoka linked her arm with Ichigo's and led her to the door. While Izuku opened it for them, and sighed and scrubbed his hands over his face, and then dropped them so that he could watch Toshi disappear inside behind the kids.

And then wondered if maybe he should pick up some parenting books while he was out today as he put the car in gear and started to pull away from the curb, making a mental note to do something nice for Ichigo later on.

Just in case.

* * *

"Hey! Look at this!" Kyoka said excitedly as she ran over to a shop window to look at the music themed leather jacket on display.

Ichigo blinked but walked over to where the shorter girl was standing with her face pressed against the window and listened dutifully to her gush about how 'cool' the jacket was. And was only moderately surprised to find herself take the girl by the wrist and tug her towards the door of the shop.

This was something that she used to do with Rukia and Orihime when they went out shopping together. Since she very rarely ever got herself anything on shopping trips, she usually wound up shopping for her friends instead.

It was one of the things that made her feel a little bit homesick. But in a weirdly good way.

Once inside of the shop, she let go of the smaller girl and let her run to get someone so that she could try the jacket on. Taking the fact that she'd just been dragged inside the place as a sort of sign and left Ichigo standing among some racks of clothing.

While she was busy, Ichigo took a few seconds to look around before coming to the conclusion that Chad would have loved this place. Uryu would have hated it with a passion. And Renji and Ikaku would have been mistaken for yakuza and escorted out by some police officers.

All in all, it was pretty funny as far as random thoughts went. So naturally she couldn't stop the slightly amused chuckle that escaped her.

"What's so funny?" She heard Izuku ask curiously from several feet behind her. Turning her head to look at him, she found Toshi standing across the isle eyeing a mannequin suspiciously. Almost like he thought that it was going to come alive and try and eat him or something.

Izuku tracked her line of vision to Toshi and sniggered as he turned back to her and said, "Pay no attention to him. He's a little gun shy around mannequins. I think a bad guy dressed up as one once and jumped him or something."

"That...sounds oddly ingenious of a bad guy."

"It does, doesn't it," He smiled at her as he stepped up to the clothing rack next to her and eyed it for a moment before asking again, "So...what were you laughing about a second ago?"

"Oh, I was just checking this place out and had the random thought that one of my friends from back home would love this place. Another would hate it. And two others would be mistaken for yakuza and escorted out by the police."

His lips twitched in amusement, but he said nothing. To be perfectly honest, he wasn't all that comfortable saying anything about her friends from her hometown.

"That is funny." He finally said after a moment or so as Kyoka came running up with a bag.

"I got it! I got it!" She chirped as she jumped around in place for a moment before stopping and grinning at them.

"That's great, Kyoka-chan. That jacket will look awesome on you." Izuku said. Ichigo didn't do anything more than smile slightly as she reached over and settled her hand on the smaller girl's head and affectionately ruffled her hair as Toshi walked over and told them all that he thought that they needed to get the hell out of there.

Apparently the mannequin really, really made the man nervous. He kept acting like it was going to jump off of it's stand and run after them, as he ushered them all out of the shop.

The next store didn't seem to make Toshi half as nervous as the last one.

Of course when asked by Izuku why the man had been so freaked out; he'd told them that the mannequin had reminded him of an ex-girlfriend who had jumped him in a dark alley once. So they let the subject drop since the poor man was obviously traumatized by the experience and was having weird flashbacks of some kind.

While there, Ichigo managed to find some shirts and jeans. Not nearly as many as Shouta was expecting her to probably get. But some just the same.

So Kyoka and Izuku compensated by grabbing her a little bit of everything necessary. Izuku handled the shirts since he wasn't allowed near female underclothes items.

He'd already been warned by Toshi that if he saw him trying to pick out any girl's underwear- he'd be wearing them to school underneath a skirt for a month. So he was sufficiently warned away.

But it didn't mean that he couldn't pick other things for Ichigo. Especially since he knew that she liked specific colors, styles and so on. He'd already found a couple of blue and violet t-shirts with black floral patters on them. Some button up shirts with long sleeves.

And several different colored satin PJ's too since they didn't really count as underthings. So Toshi couldn't do jack to him for picking those.

Tucking the last shirt that he'd pulled off of a rack over his arm, he began to weave his way through the other clothing racks and isles until he reached Toshi's side.

"You look strangely happy." The blond said as his blue eyes flickered to Izuku's arm and he quirked a brow at him questioningly and opened his mouth to ask him what he was so happy about when they both suddenly heard Ichigo shriek.

Several dozen or so feet away, Kyoka held up a matching eyesore neon orange panty and bra set that had Ichigo flinching back from her in horror.

"Come on! You like them!"

"Ew, no!"

"But they're pretty."

"No. No they _aren't_. They're terrible and atrocious! Besides, I can't stand orange! The color irritates me. Pick something less colorful and _bleh_."

"But the other stuff isn't as nice." Kyoka whined pitifully. But Ichigo wouldn't budge any.

So she inevitably gave up trying to get her interested in the orange matching panty and bra set and moved on to the yellow ones. Which was somehow almost just as bad as the snot green set that followed, once she vetoed it too.

It got so bad that Ichigo inevitably banned Kyoka from helping her underwear/bra shop anymore and banished her to sit with the boys so that she could pick her own stuff.


	15. Chapter 15

Once Ichigo had picked out a week's worth of bra/panties that she at least could tolerate enough to wear at any point whatsoever. She payed for her things and then they left the store to go see about a few other things.

One or two of which was something that she probably wasn't going to like all that much. The first of which would be a hair cut. Ichigo's near waist length strands were overly long, shaggy looking and full of split ends.

And while Toshi didn't want _all_ of the length taken off.

He knew that she wouldn't make a very great impression on anyone, looking as she presently did, once she decided which school that she was going to go to. Especially since Shota was still hoping that she would seriously go to U.A.

And the kids there tended to be high profile. Not to mention that a specific majority of the kids at U.A. also came from families that were high society hob-nobs. They were rich, famous, and very much the center of attention in the public eye.

And those kids could make getting along at school difficult for the girl if she didn't blend in a little bit better. So before the other two kids could drag her off to look at/shop for something else- he made a point of pulling her aside and making a friendly suggestion for her to maybe get a trim and style.

Ichigo hadn't looked all that upset, a little bit insulted maybe. But she hadn't put up any kind of fight since once she had checked some of the longer strands- she'd found that he was right, she'd shrugged and thanked him for pointing it out to her and then walked off.

Calling out to Izuku and Kyoka, he told them that there was a slight alteration in their plans and Ichigo was going to go to the hair salon.

Izuku had groaned.

Because he was a teenage boy and didn't understand _why_ girls cared so much about their physical appearance. Whereas Kyoka ran over, grabbed Ichigo's hand and started to chatter away about various short haired styles that would look 'good' on her.

Toshi fell into step behind the two girls and listened to some of Kyoka's outrageous suggestions with a carefully concealed look of disgust. The styles that the girl kept suggesting for Ichigo to try were far too short and _mannish_ to look even remotely good on her.

The whole bone structure was wrong. So were her features.

Yup- short hair simply wouldn't work well on her.

Izuku must have thought so too because he was very quick to tell Ichigo that her long hair was pretty. So she should keep it long.

Toshi was hard pressed not to pat the boy on the back for thinking fast and possibly diverting a disaster. Especially when Ichigo gave him a grateful look after Kyoka had suggested that she get a five inch mohawk, dye the tips pink and shave the sides of her head.

Once at the salon, Ichigo quietly went to sit down and maybe look through some hair style books to see if there was anything that interested her as Toshi went up to one of the ladies working and asked if they could work her in. The woman smiled at him and told him that they'd have to wait a few minutes, but they'd get to her.

Once Toshi was sure that Ichigo would be worked in, he meandered over and peeked at some of the styles in the book that she was thumbing through.

"Find anything that you like?" He asked curiously. She hummed and flipped back a few pages to one that she had marked and showed him a long mullet style.

"It's the same style that I've had for years. If I have the length and split ends taken off, it should fall a little ways past the middle of my back in layers and wisps."

Toshi took a moment to try picturing the style on her and finally nodded his head after some careful deliberation and then sat himself down next to her. They waited for nearly ten minutes before one of the other's working in the salon came to get her.

And since Izuku was currently keeping Kyoka entertained- Toshi was in no real hurry to leave when he could supervise what was done instead. Following along behind the girl as the stylist chatted at her and asked her what she wanted, he watched the woman like a hawk.

He needn't have bothered though. The woman doing Ichigo's hair was a professional and obviously knew what she was doing. It simply took a little longer than he had expected that it would due to the length and poor shape that the girl's hair was in. But once it was all done...he had to bite back a whistle of appreciation.

The cut and style looked _perfect_ on her.

It certainly seemed to accentuate her features in a wholly feminine way that would have Shouta beating boys away from her with really, really big sticks. Which was just part of the reason he decided for Ichigo's new hair style to be a surprise for the man.

Leaving the salon and rejoining the others, Toshi waited until they were starting to pass a nice formal dress shop before carefully suggesting that maybe Ichigo should look inside and see if she liked anything.

Ichigo looked at the clothing hanging up in the windows, curled her lips back from her teeth and actually snarled. "No thanks."

Sighing because he knew that not everything would be easy with her, he tried to argue that she might want to look. Like for when she got asked to a formal school dance or something. He even reasoned with her that she wouldn't be able to show up to a formal event with a date- in jeans. It simply wasn't done.

But she merely crossed her arms and gave him an unimpressed look and refused to budge while merely stating that she never intended to go to any formal stuff.

She had been raised to be a _fighter_ \- not a girly-girl.

And then tacked on that she would _never_ wear a dress anyways. The styles in the shop window were 'tramp-ish'. Which he supposed she had about right. And they showed far too much skin. Besides, she then joked that she had far too many ugly scars and would be likened to Frankenstein's monster if she did wear one.

So thanks, but _no thanks_.

Toshi honestly felt at a loss about what to do or say to that. On one hand he wanted her to at least try and look. Even if she didn't decide to get anything, he could at least mention something to Shouta and let him get something for her without her knowing about it.

So hearing her say that she would never wear one because of her scars and such made him feel bad. Especially when she made fun of herself.

Sighing softly, he decided to let the subject drop, and simply ruffled her hair and told her that that was fine. He would talk to someone who could design formal attire for her. Something nice and feminine that didn't make her feel self conscious about her body, or feel as if she'd be likened to a monster.

Not long after that, Ichigo decided that she'd had enough of clothing shopping and asked if they could leave. It was a little bit past one and she still needed to go by a grocery store to pick some things up so that she could cook for Toshi.

* * *

Kyoka decided to stick around the mall for a bit longer after sending Hizashi a text. After which she told the rest of them bye, and wrangled a promise out of Ichigo to hang out again sometime.

Ichigo simply smiled at her and nodded, after she gave her a quick hug and then thanked her for her help. Once the goodbye's were out of the way, she asked Toshi which grocery store was the closest to their current location. And then waited patiently for him to show her the way.

Izuku decided to stay with them instead of going home since he wanted to see what Ichigo was up too now. And walked quietly beside Ichigo as she followed Toshi away from the mall and down the street to one of the nice local grocery stores a block or so away.

Once there, the three of them walk inside and Ichigo grabs a buggy and starts looking for a place to start her shopping as she absently asked Izuku if he wanted to stay for dinner or something while Toshi texts Shouta to let him know where they were and what they were doing.

* * *

Shota was standing in the living room of a nice, remodeled, two story cottage style home trying to imagine living in it. Which was a lot easier than he had thought that it would be. The three bedroom, two bathroom house was just _awesome._

Way better than any stinking apartment.

It was nice and roomy, had plenty of space for himself and Ichigo a couple of cats- it even had a nice, decently sized, fenced in yard with a little man made pond and creek in it full of minnows and other small fish.

He might have to get a few more pieces of furniture to fill some of the rooms up. But all in all, it was perfect. Feeling his phone vibrate in his pocket, he dug it out and checked the text that Toshi had just sent him.

He had to read it twice before he could think to remind Toshi to remind Ichigo that she needed to get hygiene stuff while she was there. And also to let Izuku know that he could have dinner with them if he wanted, but he better watch himself.

Once he was finished texting his friend back, he turned back to the realter and told him that he'd take the house. The guy gave him a shark like grin and clapped his hands together happily and then told him that he'd go and grab the papers from his car and they'd start the buying process.

* * *

Ichigo was checking how ripe a honeydew melon was when Toshi walked up and asked her if she was okay. He was still a bit bothered by their 'dress' discussion and couldn't help but wonder if perhaps he'd hurt her feelings or maybe upset her.

She didn't act _upset_.

But she was being oddly quiet. Almost like before when they had left the apartment. So he'd thought to ask, just in case.

She lowered the melon away from her face and looked at him for a moment before slowly replying. "No. No, I'm not upset."

"I see... Well all the same- I feel as if I owe you an apology. Just in case I did upset you."

"You don't," She cut him off when he opened his mouth to apologize. "I mean, I understand you're reasoning. It's not like it was flawed or anything. Specific school events and such _do_ call for formal attire. I just thought I'd stay home and pretend to actually have a life outside of school on those days or nights. Ya know, since I'm not really the type of girl who really gives a damn what a bunch of jerks think about me anyways."

Toshi couldn't help the small chuckle that escaped him.

That sounded a lot more like her than the whole 'being likened to a monster because of her scars' thing. But then again... Maybe she was simply trying to make him stop fretting over her feelings by pretending not to be bothered.

It certainly seemed like something that she would do. He thought to himself as she placed the melon in the buggy next to some pears and other fruits.

"What are you planning to make for dinner?" He asked, deciding that a change in topic might be best for the time being.

"It's sort of a tossup between some traditional foods and a few non-traditional. But I do plan to make some stuff specifically suited for you."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I know a few things that I've learned from having a ton of stomach injuries myself. There were times when I couldn't eat anything either. So I did a little bit of research and I worked on some really inventive recipes to make some stuff that I could tolerate. One of which is a banana and fruit salad with a nice creamy, whipped, sweet ginger dressing-" Toshi would be lying if he said that the fruit dish she'd just mentioned didn't sound pleasant. Because it did. It sounded so pleasant that his mouth started to water. "I can also make some nice veggie dishes, soups, sandwiches, and even some pudding that's high calorie enough for you to gain at least ten pounds over night after eating a big portion of it."

"Really?"

"Yup."

"W-What about cakes and such?" Toshi asked hesitantly. One of the many things that he'd absolutely hated about being unable to eat much was the fact that he'd had to stop indulging his sweet tooth as much as he'd used too.

"Yeah. I can make some of those that you can eat too."

"Really?!" He asked in a shocked tone as visions of cake and other things danced around in his head and he asked, "What kind?"

"Well, I know some sponge cake recipes. Some cheese cakes, donuts and even some mochi. There are some that are some muffins and cupcakes too."

Toshi almost sank to his knees and cried right then and there. And he seriously would have if he hadn't jokingly said, "Marry me. Seriously, your parent figure is a dick. Marry me and take care of me, _please_." Instead.

Ichigo laughed at him as he leaned down a little bit and lay his head on her shoulder and looked pitiful as Izuku; whom had seen and heard enough decided to cut in and save Ichigo from him by grabbing him by the back of his jacket and literally dragging him away from her, kicking and screaming.

Leaving the girl to watch the spectacle with an bemused grin.


	16. Chapter 16

Later that evening-

Izuku, Toshi and Shota were all watching Ichigo with keen interest from the island as she flitted about the kitchen making everyone's food. The day had gone about as well as Shota had expected it to go. And the girl had gotten everything, more or less, important for the moment.

He didn't mind that she hadn't wanted any formal dresses. At least not yet anyways. Especially since she still hadn't decided on a school yet and her introduction to society as an heiress was still a little ways off.

Which meant that he would have her more or less to himself at least for a little while.

And he was fine with that since he seemed to be warming up to the idea of being her parent-figure. But he wasn't going to tell Izuku or Toshi that. Not only would they both embarrass him. But they'd make fun of him and then he'd have to kill them.

So...mum was the word for now. He thought to himself as he watched his not-daughter work. He'd say this for the girl, though he still didn't know her very well at all, she'd make some lucky schmuck a wonderful wife one day.

She was in the process of making a feast!

Toshi for one, hadn't stopped drooling for the past hour. Which was pretty disgusting. But Shota let him be since he couldn't seem to help himself any.

So far, she had made a nice, big fruit salad for everyone. Some country style fried chicken, some veggie dishes, and a few other things. Some of which Toshi and Izuku could take home with them since she was making enough for them to have leftovers for a few days even while sharing it with the other two.

Izuku looked absolutely giddy about taking some of her home made food back home with him. And Toshi damn near burst into song. And he actually might have...if not for the dark look that Shota shot his way before hissing at him _not_ to sing.

It would distract the nice girl who was going to feed them and then he and Izuku, both, would have to injure him. Especially if she wound up accidentally burning something.

So Toshi blew him a raspberry and muttered something rude about him underneath his breath as Izuku decided right about then to strike up a conversation. "So...h-have you thought about which school you want to go too yet?" The moment that the words left his mouth, the two men wheeled on him with matching expressions of horror/awe.

Ichigo stopped poking at a piece of chicken for a second to cast a glance at him from over one of her shoulders before replying slowly. "I'm not sure."

"Really?" Izuku asked. She nodded her head. "Why are you having a hard time choosing? You can already fight, and you have some great qualities that would make you an awesome pro-hero-"

"I have no desire to _be_ a hero."

"Huh? What do you mean?" He asked curiously as both Toshi and Shota decided to pay careful attention to the conversation so that they could step in and help when needed. "Being a hero is great! And you've already helped so many people."

"I'm sure that being a hero is great...for some," Ichigo said, not bothering to turn back around because she didn't want to see Izuku's happy expression fade as she tacked on. "But I never had a choice one way or another."

"Huh?" Izuku said as both Toshinori and Shouta tensed up a little bit. Both men getting the feeling that whatever she had to say next would be just as unpleasant as a lot of other things that they had learned about her thus far.

Finally placing the few pieces of chicken still in the pan, aside. Ichigo finally turned and looked at them.

"I never had a choice, Izuku. No one ever asked me what I wanted. No one ever cared enough to even bother to try. I was dragged into being a fighter by the same mad- man that fancied himself to be a god, before I was even born."

They all stayed very quiet as she reached out and turned the stove off and then leaned back against the counter for a heartbeat or two as if she were trying to think of something before finally muttering, _"Fuck it."_ And then facing them again as she grabbed a few of the dishes of food and walked over to the island and began to lay them out.

"There's not really any way to avoid having to speak about this. Especially now. I had _hoped_ to get to know everyone a little bit better before spilling more stuff about myself than I'm really comfortable with. But whatever-" She said as she went and collected some more of the food and set it down in front of the three before then going to get some plates, forks, spoons and such and returning one last time. She set everything down and nervously wiped her palms on her pants legs and then made a weird expression before then saying very seriously. "I wasn't joking when I said that I was dragged into things before I was even born. Both of my parents had very strong abilities. Not a whole lot unlike my own, and yet very much so. They were the youngest and strongest of their generation."

"They're abilities were deemed useful for making strong, weaponized children. The man who fancied himself as a god... He pushed my parents together for the sole purpose of an long term experiment to create a powerful child or even several. His main long term goal was to train, and one day _use_ the children to gain what he wanted. He intended to do whatever he had too. He would lie, cheat, steal, kidnap, and kill whoever he deemed fit. Nothing and no one would stop him."

"However his plans fell a little short of his exact desires. Especially when both of my parents realized what he was planning. It happened a short time before my mom was killed. You see- because she hadn't shown any signs of breeding anymore strong children after I was born, her usefulness was decided to be at an end. And he had her murdered _knowing_ that it would change me."

"And in many ways, he was right. It's difficult to be that young and be able to even process you're first concept of the _horror_ that death is. But I managed to anyways. It was stark, and ugly- and definitely not something that any eight year old kid should ever experience like that. I was with my mom when she died. I was right fucking _there_. But I had been rendered unconscious and couldn't do anything for her. And it never felt right to me. I was born strong. Stronger than most. And powerful too. So why was I so damn helpless?"

"I-Ichigo-" Shota started to tell her to stop. She didn't have to do this. But she stopped him by holding up a hand to silence him.

"So her death did what it was supposed to. It changed me. It made me angry. And determined in ways that small children can't comprehend. My mother's death changed my father too. He decided that since Aizen wanted a weapon so badly- that he'd give him one. The only difference is, Aizen wanted to be able to _corrupt_ and _control_ me-" Something dark and dangerous coiled itself around Izuku and each of the men's hearts. "My father would see to it that Aizen bit off more than he could chew. So he trained me. Not my abilities though. I was far too young to withstand using them back then. But he trained my body and mind instead."

"It wasn't pleasant either. My dad didn't pull any punches with me just because of my age, gender, or even because I was his daughter. If anything, it made him that much _harsher_. The very first bones that I ever broke- was when he hit, kicked and even threw me into trees or large rocks."

"He really-" Izuku started to ask if her dad had really hurt her. But stopped when she gave him a look.

"He did," Ichigo confirmed with a solemn nod. "While he was training me to be able to fight against Aizen and his madness. I had to watch as he smiled, loved, and fiercely protected my little sisters in ways that he never did with me. To him, for a long time- I was nothing but a _weapon_. Any blood between ties between us meant nothing."

"He managed to train me quite well before he had to stop. I was twelve when I finally grew into my abilities. And I was dragged into my first few serious fights that same year. A year later, I was eye ball deep in a string of messes that would have broke a normal person. And my power grew to such unfathomable heights that the last time I faced Aizen...I left him cowering in fear of me, screaming that I was a monster."

"So ya, see. All I've been ever since I was a little kid is a weapon. Not a person. Not a kid. Not even someone's daughter. And while I've managed to save, protect, and even _help_ a whole lot of people...all of whom, I wouldn't trade for anything in the world- I just want to be a normal person for once." She said. And then sighed as she reached up and ran her fingers through her hair. Pushing it back from her face some before then saying, "I just want some _peace_. And though I know it probably sounds selfish to you, I think that I've fought long and hard enough to be able to genuinely deserve some. Don't you think?"

Toshi and Shota both looked at Ichigo with varying expressions of concern and sympathy despite the fiery burn of anger and rage churning in their guts as Izuku remained silent for a moment longer before finally asking her, "Does that mean that you don't like hero's?"

Ichigo looked at him tiredly and then slowly stood as she softly said, " _No_. Not at all. I have nothing but a great deal or respect and admiration for anyone that can do what hero's do. It's...just not the career path that I'd choose for myself. That's all... Why don't you three go ahead and eat before everything gets cold. I'm tired and I think I'm going to call it a night."

Izuku started to reach out and stop her from leaving but was stopped by a strong hand shackling his wrist and stopping him as he heard Aizawa-sensei softly bid her goodnight.


	17. Chapter 17

As soon as Ichigo was out of the room, Izuku started to freak out. He hadn't meant to upset her. He really, really hadn't. He'd only wanted to know whether or not she planned to attend UA or not. And yet...

_"Dammit."_ He breathed, his tone angry and full of loathing as he felt his sensei's hand slowly move from his wrist to his shoulder where it settled there and squeezed ever so slightly in what was supposed to be a comforting manner.

"Calm down kid." Aizawa said gently. Understanding all too well what the boy must be thinking of himself right then.

Even he hadn't expected something like the story that Ichigo had just told them. He probably should have, but somewhere in the back of his mind- he had desperately hoped that she'd had a fairy tail kind of childhood before everything had gone straight to shit.

Now he knew just how stupid it was of him to have clung to that _futile_ hope. And knowing about her father, and the other guy and how she had been treated and such absolutely made him fucking furious and sick to his stomach.

_Christ._ No wonder she wanted nothing to do with being a hero.

She probably believed that it was just another way to use her as a weapon. And while she wouldn't be entirely wrong. She wouldn't exactly be right either. At least he hoped not.

"I didn't mean to upset her like that." Izuku finally said after several heartbeats of internal seething.

"I know." Was all that Shota could think to say in an effort to assure the boy that he wasn't angry at him. Hell, he very much doubted that _Ichigo_ was mad at him either.

He was quickly learning that his not-daughter was a very calm and laid back person. Who was also very, _very_ understanding about things, even when she shouldn't be. _She must have had a considerable amount of practicing forgiveness between the training/abuse and everything else._ Shouta thought darkly to himself as he grit his teeth together until his jaw hurt.

Sighing, he finally glanced over at Toshi and noted that his mental state wasn't any better than his own or Izuku's. The man was beyond pissed. He was fucking _livid_. And Shouta had no doubt that if Ichigo's father and the other guy had been standing in front of the blond right then, he would have torn them both to _pieces_ with his bare hands.

As far as the two men went, such behavior towards a defenseless child was beyond inexcusable. It was utterly appalling.

"I guess that you plan to crash here tonight Toshi?" Shota asked as the man tried desperately to keep himself from transforming right there and taking his fury out on his helpless kitchen.

"I will." He didn't have to tell Shota that he was planning to stick around and help keep an eye on Ichigo. His friend already knew, and didn't seem to mind. If anything with her previous history of trying to kill herself and such- an extra pair of eyes on her would be a relief.

Especially since it meant that she wouldn't have much of a chance to do anything stupid to herself.

"Sensei...I want to stay too." Izuku said, but Shota merely shook his head no. He didn't want to boy there just in case something happened that was...ugly.

It would hurt him. And he would blame himself more than he already did.

"No."

"But-"

"No, Izuku!" He snapped at him when he started to argue. Izuku recoiled from him as if he'd just slapped him and Shota needed to take a moment to calm himself before then saying in a much softer tone, "You need to go home. You're mother is expecting you soon. Besides, Toshi and I will keep an eye on her tonight. But I really don't think that she's going to do more than sleep. So try to stop worrying so much."

Izuku curled his fingers into tight fists at his sides and nodded his head curtly, hating that his sensei's were trying to get him to leave when he might be needed when he heard Aizawa say softly, "You call me tomorrow around ten am or so- And if she's feeling better then you can come over and see her. And I'll take you both out to the local park and let you run around and do...problem child _stuff_ as long as it doesn't cause anybody any trouble. Okay?"

Izuku chewed his bottom lip for a moment as he mulled over Aizawa's words before nodding his head again, figuring that it was the best offer that his sensei would be able to give him right now.

Toshi got up out of his seat and grabbed some tupperware to put some of Izuku's share of the food that Ichigo had made for them in, so that he could take it home and eat later. And not long after that, Izuku headed home for the night.

Once he was gone, the two men made quick work of dividing up/putting the food away for the time being and then retiring to the living room where they spent more than half the night alternating between just talking, and taking turn's checking up on Ichigo to make sure that she was really okay.

* * *

Ichigo didn't sleep worth a damn.

She spent most of her night tossing and turning and trying desperately not to give in to nightmares. It had gotten so bad that after the first few hours or so- she'd finally given up trying to get any damn rest and had simply lain on her bed and stared up at the ceiling until she'd seen the first few pink-orange rays of light filtering through her bedroom window.

After that, she had gotten up. Or out of her bed at least. Well- sort of anyways.

But she hadn't left her room. To be perfectly honest, she wasn't even sure if she was supposed too after upsetting everyone the night before. Especially at dinner time. Even more so after all of that hard work that she'd done.

If her dad had been alive, he would have slapped her out of her chair for _daring_ to ruin everyone's appetites and waste food.

Scrunching up her nose a little bit at her own thoughts, she completely missed the bedroom door being opened a little bit and a pair of dark eyes peeking through the small sliver to check on her.

Shota wasn't sure what to make of her behavior yet this morning. He and Toshi had practically stayed up all night keeping watch over her, just in case.

And then this morning around breakfast time, _after_ they'd both consumed enough coffee to have their hearts explode in their chests- they'd anxiously waited for her to come out of her room and join them in eating some of the leftovers from the dinner that she worked so hard on... Only for her to be a no-show?

They'd both exchanged a look and Toshi had asked if maybe she had simply slept in late. But here she was awake. Looking more than a little bit sleep deprived herself, and staring blankly ahead at absolutely nothing. Which was...frigging worrying to him since he didn't know if this was normal or even typical behavior for her or not.

And that kind of worried him even more.

Quickly weighing the pro's and con's, he decided to go ahead and see if he could coax her out.

Knocking lightly on the door to announce his presence, he waited until she reacted and told him to come in, before doing so. Once he had her permission to enter, he pushed the door open a little bit more and stepped into the room and gently closed the door behind him.

"Hey."

"Hey." She said back as he shifted a little bit uncomfortably under the weight of her stare.

"Do you plan to come out and...maybe eat something? There's plenty of leftovers from last night. And Toshi is nearly chomping at the bit to see you." He said in a soft, coaxing tone.

Ichigo sighed and just slightly ducked her head before saying, "Yeah. Sure." As she slowly got up off of her bed and walked over to him, letting him place a hand on the small of her back and usher her towards the door with a soft nudge. He studied her covertly, from underneath his lashes while she wasn't paying any attention to him.

She seemed to be depressed.

He couldn't exactly blame her. After all she had relived some very bad things from her childhood.

Though he didn't really understand _why_ this seemed to bother her far more than the things that she showed them, the day that they met. They had in many ways been much worse than what she had told them all last night. Walking down the hallway close behind her, Shouta had to keep nudging her ever so slightly to keep her moving when it looked as if she were going to start dragging her feet.

Once they were past the living room, and could hear Toshi puttering around in the kitchen, Shouta maneuvered her towards there so that Toshi would be able to _see_ her. Since he'd been wound up tighter than a spring for the past few hours and his anxiousness was finally starting to get the best of him.

"Look who's up and finally out of her room!" He called out, trying to make his tone light. Hoping that Ichigo's mood would lighten up some if she was closer to Toshi since the two seemed to get along and all.

Toshi was in the middle of stacking/unstacking his dishes again when they walked in. And damn near dropped about a dozen or so of his glass plates on top of his own head when he saw Ichigo.

"Ichi-"

"Dammit, Toshinori put my fucking dishes down before you break them!"

Toshi set his dishes down on the counter in a hurry, and still managed to break at least _one_. And then wound up staring at the two of them frozen like a deer-caught-in-the-headlights for a heartbeat or two before Ichigo finally snorted in amusement and hid her face for a second.

Both men seemed to breathe a little sigh of relief for the moment. As Shota gave the girl one last nudge and then went to go and grab his broom so that he could clean up the glass before Toshi hurt himself trying to pick it up.

Ichigo didn't know exactly what her guardian wanted from her, but she could take a hint and sat herself down at the island out of the way, while the two men worked to clean up the small mess before then returning their attention to her.

"How about some leftovers for breakfast?" Shota suggested in an smooth tone as he dumped the last of the glass in the trash. "You didn't eat any last night and considering how much you probably need the calories-"

"Sure."

"Okay-"

"I'll get it for you Ichigo!" Toshi said in a heroic 'All Might-ish' manner as he made a quick beeline for Shota's fridge before the other man could even remember to call out that he better not break anymore of his stuff as he made haste in grabbing everything out of the fridge and fixing Ichigo a nice helping of everything.

Not really caring or not whether she'd actually eat it as long as she ate _something_.

Putting the dishes down in front of her, he then handed her a fork and then sat down across from her so that he could monitor how much she decided to eat.

Which wasn't _creepy_ at all.

Though it seemed to elicit a shake of the girl's head before she started to tuck into her meal and pointedly ignored the man for the moment before he finally seemed to gather up enough courage to ask her if she was okay.

Ichigo paused, eating for a moment to cast him a slightly nervous look before then replying that she was fine as she resumed eating. Toshi looked towards where Shota was hanging out for the moment and noted that his friend didn't seem to be buying her lie anymore than he did.

"Ichigo…" Shota started to call her on her lie. But stopped when Toshi cast him a slight warning look.

"I'm fine. Really," Ichigo insisted as she finished polishing off what was left of her meal. "All I did was share stuff that's best left alone. It's not like any of it really-" She stopped talking when she felt one of the men wrap his arms around her, and had to hold herself perfectly still and _not_ try to struggle to be let free again.

If she struggled she'd either hurt him or she'd hurt herself.

So staying still was good. Right?

Besides it wasn't as if the concept of a comforting or protective embrace was entirely foreign to her. She'd used it far too many times on others for it to be. Still... She didn't know what to do with this. She was used to always being the one who initiated. Not _received_.

So she was sort of at a loss as to how to...react.

"It's okay to be sad. Speaking so openly about what happened to you last night- must have been incredibly difficult for you. You were so _brave_. But you don't have to be brave all the time, kid. No one expects you to really feel like yourself right now. And no one will hold it against you any if you're depressed for a little while either." Shota said softly, his lips close to her ear.

Ichigo seemed to mull over his words as Toshi chimed in with his own opinion. "Shota is right. You were incredibly brave last night to share something so dark with us despite you're nervousness and anxiety. But you don't have to put up a front around us and pretend that you're alright. You can be upset. We don't mind."

"Taking care of you, protecting you, making sure that you're okay- that's _our_ job, kid. Not the other way around. I'm sorry that no one ever really stepped up and told you that before. But it's the truth. So...it's okay to not be okay. Just as long as it doesn't last forever." Shota said as he straightened his spine a little bit so that he could rest his cheek on top of her head as he felt the first of what most likely would be many, many tears, fall onto his hands.


	18. Chapter 18

Shota held Ichigo for who knew how long as she cried. Her loud sobs shaking her entire body. And only really removed himself from her once she slumped over in his arms completely and utterly exhausted, and more than half asleep.

After which, he carefully collected his not-daughter in his arms and carried her back to her room and tucked her in, and then grabbed the stuffed bunny that Izuku- _the sneaky rotten little brat_ \- had given to her the previous day, and watched her take it from him without even waking or stirring once. And curled herself around it with a soft sigh.

He stayed still for several heartbeats longer, just studying her for a few moments before finally backing out of the room and quietly closing the door behind him.

"How is she?" Toshi asked once he returned from her bedroom to find him.

The dark haired man shrugged his shoulders in response to his friend's question and wearily sat himself down in an empty chair across from the blond and scrubbed his face with his hands before finally saying, "I want to destroy something."

Toshi's eye brows nearly disappeared into his hair line as he stared at him with a look of sympathy. To be utterly honest, he was feeling much the same way.

He was still angry about what had been done to her thanks to the cruelty of others. And as much as he hated them- and _longed_ to be able to wrap his fingers around that fucking bitch that her father called a heart- he couldn't. The man was long dead. And while digging up his grave and trying to resurrect him held enough appeal.

Starting something of a zombie apocalypse, just wasn't worth it. Not even to bring one guy back to life just so that he could kill him all over again.

Brutally. Savagely...

"I think I want to destroy something too." Toshi finally said and perked up some when Shota suggested something nice that might appease them/their violent tendencies, both.

"Wanna go out and see if we can find a villain or someone to beat up?"

Toshi was quiet for several moments as he carefully weighed the pro's and con's before finally saying, "Bitchin. Let's do it."

Shota nodded his head and pulled out his cell and texted Hizashi and asked him if he would mind keeping an eye on Ichigo for them while they both went and did something fun, irresponsible, and _destructive._

"Hizashi says that he'll take care of Ichigo until we get back." He said absently.

"Fan-fucking-tastic. Now lets go before I go stir crazy and mess up your apartment."

"You wake Ichigo, and I'll skin you alive." Shota growled at him. Toshi just cast him a shit eating grin and playfully shoved him into the door frame and then took off running out of the apartment laughing.

Shota snarled at the blondes back and took a moment to close the door to his home and text Hizashi that if Izuku called, to tell him not to bother them today. Ichigo wasn't feeling up for company.

And then slipped his phone back into his pant's pocket and jumped over the railing so that he could catch up to Toshi faster.

* * *

Ichigo knew the exact moment that her guardian and Toshi had left the apartment, and her eyes popped open as she quickly bolted upright. There was something strange in the air. Something dark and malevolent and so, so very _hungry_ that it sent a chill of fear down her spine.

She'd only felt one or two things like this before. Usually around Menos Grande or Arrancar.

But on occasions she would feel it around people that were either malicious and unhinged, or objects that left a very _vivid_ spiritual impression from previous owners.

Quickly throwing the blanket off of her, she climbed out of bed and grabbed her Soul Reaper badge. It didn't work for her anymore. It hadn't ever since that last confrontation with Aizen.

Her power had grown too much for her to require it's aid any longer. But she kept it anyways. Knowing that while it may not work for her anymore- it still connected her to the life that she'd had before. And everyone that she'd met.

And she drew a certain amount of comfort from that despite the distance between them now.

Tilting her head to the side for a moment, she held her breath in an effort to hear at a greater distance than what was outside of her room. Hoping against hope that _whatever_ the fuck it was giving her this freaky feeling wasn't coming straight for her location.

She didn't want her guardian or anyone else to get hurt.

"Please don't be coming here-" She breathed and squeezed her eyes closed in dread as the whole apartment seemed to shake for several horrifying heartbeats as she felt a Hollow's spiritual pressure pressing down on her. Her breath left her in a long angry hiss as she stomped across her room to the door and threw it open, letting the knob smack the wall with a loud bang as she stepped out into the hallway. And took a moment or so to look around her present home.

No one was there except for her. At least not for the moment anyways.

But she could hear what's-his-name? Kyoka's dad, not too far off from the apartment. He was whistling a jaunty tune as he moved at a leisurely pace.

It was right about then that she felt the chill become much, much worse and she went for the door knowing that if she stayed put- Kyoka's dad- or even Toshi or her new guardian might end up dead.

And it was a good thing that she decided to move too.

If she had been any slower at moving her ass, Kyoka's dad would have been taken out before she even stepped outside and managed to grab him and throw them both over the railing outside of the apartment door and fall to the ground below just as the Hollow had tried to make a grab for them.

It's hand crashed into the small walkway outside of the apartment and tore it away from the building.

She and...why the hell couldn't she recall the guys name?! She couldn't just keep calling him Kyoka's dad. It was weird! She lamented to herself as soon as she managed to push herself upright and look back at the Hollow as the guy let out a few small coughs.

Probably from landing so hard on his back and having the breath knocked out of him. Taking a moment to weigh the pro's and con's of dragging him along when he was stunned, knowing that while he wouldn't exactly slow her down any- he might very well wind up hurt even worse than he already was. She barely had a moment or so to finish trying to calculate his odds before the Hollow howled angrily and coiled itself to try striking again.

"Fuck me." She muttered as she quickly grabbed the tall blond and put him over one of her shoulders and took off down the street as if the very hounds of hell were nipping at her heels as the guy finally managed to rasp out,

"W'appened?"

She ignored him for the time being and ducked into a narrow alley hoping to buy enough time to put his someplace out of harms way. She found a large metal dumpster about half way down the alley. Stopping next to it, she slipped him off of her shoulder and gently set him on the ground next to it while subconsciously checking both ends of the alley to make sure that the Hollow wouldn't be able to simply reach in and grab him.

She _hated_ it. But they weren't exactly above taking hostages.

"What happened?" He asked again. His speech was a bit cleared now and he sounded a lot less dazed.

"Nothing that you need to worry about."

"Kid?" He said questioningly. He would almost swear that right around the time that she grabbed him and flung them both from the fourth floor where Shouta's apartment was; that something had _blown up_? "Kid seriously- talk to me here. Were you playing with something? I thought that I saw-"

"I wasn't playing with anything-" She said in a defensive tone, with a scowl, as she fixed her eerie blue eyes on him. She could hear and see the Hollow above them. It's hateful red eyes locked on her. She would have to leave him there and go take care of the fucking thing. "But that's beside the point... I need you to stay here."

"Wha? What do you mean stay-"

She took a moment to bind his body with the same Kido that Rukia had used on her all those years ago, and then stepped back and began to move away. His startled shout barely registering in her ears once he found out that he couldn't move.

He tried to caterpillar crawl after her, but knowing that there was broken glass and such all over the pace, she didn't think that it was likely that he'd get very far.

* * *

Toshinori was having a blast destressing. And he wouldn't swear to it- he believed that Shouta was too.

Right now they were a tad bit busy beating the ever loving snot out of some low life's that had decided to try robbing a bank several blocks from the apartment. It wasn't a big bank. Or all that rich looking. But then...the villains weren't exactly that bright.

In fact, Toshi would swear that Shota had muttered something about them being inbred hicks. Which was _sooo_ incredibly rude that he was all kinds of glad that Ichigo wasn't present at the moment. He would have hated to have to cover her innocent little ears to protect her from learning anymore foul language.

Though he was pretty sure that it wouldn't stop the little spit fire from using what she already knew in very, very interesting and inventive ways.

He was in the process of picking up a car to use as a club on one of the guys. While Shota had two of the other villain's down and was absolutely wailing on them both when Toshi felt his cell vibrate in his pocket and nearly dropped the car that he'd just picked up- on his own head.

Sighing as he reluctantly shifted his hold of the vehicle, he fished the blasted thing out and pressed the button to see what the person calling wanted and nearly dropped the phone and the car both when Hizashi's loud, and panicked voice sounded over the speaker.

_"She's gone! She's gone! I don't know where she went!"_

Toshi didn't have any time to contemplate how unsatisfying smashing the third bank robber was going to be as he chucked the car at him and then turned and noted that Shota had gone eerily still where he was. His eyes glowing a deep and feral looking red as he turned to look at him for a moment before remembering that Toshi's All Might form was different from his normal one. And quickly deactivating his quirk to keep from outing him to some civilians watching them from nearby as he quickly got to his feet and snatched Toshi's phone from him.

"Where are you?" He asked in a clipped tone.

_"I'm in an alley not far from the apartment! Shota- I don't know what the hell is going on! I tried to get her to talk to me- I even tried to follow her, but I can't fucking move a muscle! It's like I'm tied up and it's really freaking me out!"_

"Alright, calm down," Shota said as he looked at Toshi and nodded his head to give him the green light to go ahead without him. He could find Hizashi easily enough and the two of them could join him in looking for Ichigo once they met up. "All Might is on his way." He said as he handed Toshi's phone back to him and let the blond go on ahead of him.


	19. Chapter 19

"Sokatsui!" Ichigo called out as she stopped running, and spun on her heel while she extended her arm out towards the Hollow. Waves of blue flame surged forth almost instantly and hit the Hollow causing it to scream in agony and trip over it's own elongated limbs.

Quickly jumping out of the way, she took cover behind a parked car and watched as the huge body of the Hollow rolled and then came to an abrupt stop once it crashed though a brick building with a loud **_Boom_**.

Taking nearly all of the front of the already questionable looking structure.

Cringing a little bit, she internally hoped that there was no one living in it. Or above the area that the Hollow had just destroyed anyways. She listened to the slow, dazed growl that escaped it before it turned onto it's side and attempted to push itself up as she got up and moved away from the car that she'd been using as a shield.

She couldn't stay where she was and risk civilian casualties.

Taking a moment to look around for the least populated place possible- she was struck with the insane urge to scream in frustration. _Dammit_ this was the problem with big cities! There were buildings and people and vehicles _everywhere_. And on top of that, she could feel Toshi had returned to the apartment.

And she knew that if he was there to see what was going on- then her guardian wasn't likely to be very far behind him.

She needed to kill the damn Hollow, _fast_. Like now.

The Hollow finally seemed to shake itself from it's daze and let out a shriek of rage as it shifted itself so quickly that it's tail caught some of the bricks still pieced together as well as a car, and flung them at high velocity in her direction. Ichigo blanched and let out a string of oaths.

The car would be easier to avoid due to it's size.

But the bricks...at least two of them were likely to hit her whether she tried to run or not. The only question was; Would she be able to live with a crushed skull and a broken back until her regeneration kicked in? Or would that damn thing eat her while she was down?

Tensing up in preparation of moving out of the car's way as it came sailing towards her spinning in the air, she was almost ready to move when all of a sudden she heard a loud, booming, masculine voice shout, "No need to fear- I am here!" barely a split second before the car was beginning to come down just a little bit over her head.

The sudden appearance of the owner of the voice was enough to startle her into non-action and she wound up screaming once she realized that the car was practically upon her. Hitting the ground at the absolute last second possible she managed to escape serious, possibly life threatening injury.

But it didn't stop some of the jagged and torn metal or shattered glass from finding purchase in her flesh.

Blood ran down one of her cheeks, as well as her scalp, the backs of her hands, and the crook of one of her elbows had a goddamn screw embedded in it. And it fucking _hurt_.

"Gyaah! Miss!" The loud guy that had distracted her practically shouted in horror. Which, she totally got. After all, it wasn't everyday that one came upon stuff flying through the air and buildings crashing to the ground willy-nilly and all for absolutely no reason. So he was probably pretty freaked out.

Lying there for a moment just trying to breathe through the twinges of pain that she felt- she also sort of forgot about the bricks. Until...

"Here, let me help you up." The guy said as he moved over to her and then, had one of his legs knocked right out form under him.

It was like watching the world's weirdest train wreck in slow motion. Ichigo just couldn't look away from the bizarre sight of the guy- _Jesus fucking Christ he was a blond!_ Was of course her first thought. And was quickly followed by the thought, _It's like watching someone spaz out._

It was both mildly amusing and irritating as well.

He flailed, made funny faces- honestly she was tempted to see if she could find a camera so that she could take pictures- and even did that freakishly amusing slow motion, _"Noooo!"_ mere seconds before he hit the ground on his back. Just a few inches shy of actually landing on her, and just looked at her as if he didn't know what the hell to do now.

She gnashed her teeth and hissed at him like a cat when he finally decided on a course of action and smiled at her like an huge frigging dope. "Idiot!" She snapped at him, as she swiped at his face with her finger tips almost like a feline would.

The whole aim was to get his damned attention and get him to stop smiling like a moron. And it might have worked too. However he caught her hand far too easily for her comfort and simply stared hard at it for a moment before commenting, "You're bleeding miss."

"I know that!"

"Does it hurt?" The concern in his tone made her feel like both screaming in frustration and crying at the same time. 

Ichigo growled and made an attempt to pull free of his grasp. Dammit the Hollow was mobile again! She needed to get it _away_ from this dumbass! However since the strange guy was of a mind that she should _stay_ put, regardless of her feelings on the matter, and she couldn't exactly pull her arms free- so she didn't have a choice but to stay there.

Knowing that pulling herself from his grasp was quickly proving to be a waste of her energy and efforts, she had no choice but to improvise a bit if she was going to protect them both.

Growling again in frustration, she rolled herself onto her back and then arched her back up off of the ground just enough to manage to flip herself over on top of him.

Her legs straddling his waist as he made a weird strangled sound in the back of his throat. She cast him a quick look, absently noting that his face was flushed and he looked ever so slightly panicked. She smirked down at her as she felt him release one of her arms and finally allowed her to fire off another attack since the Hollow was practically right on top of them now.

"Sokatsui!"

Blue flames burst forth again, crashing right into the Hollow's mask causing it to rear back with a screech as part of it's mask fell away.

Seeing her opening, Ichigo quickly jerked her other arm free and pushed herself up off of the guy and took a running leap as the Hollow was in mid-thrash. And reared back her fist and used a more powerful kido, muttering the spell softly underneath her breath, to wrap her hand in some of her power and waited until the Hollow was facing her direction again and drove her fist right into the weakened bone of it's mask and tore it apart.

The Hollow shrieked one last time and slowly disintegrated.

Once the mask fell away, Ichigo finally allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief as the adrenaline flooding her system slowly began to ebb away. Closing her eyes for a moment to stave off a wave of dizziness she might've hit the ground- if not for a certain weird _blond_ guy finally managing to get to his feet and catch her in his arms.

He landed deftly on the ground with her held carefully in his arms as her head lolled back and she tried to tell him that Kyoka's dad was in the alley. She had to go free him. And her guardian and Toshi- she needed to find them both and make sure that they were okay too. They would be worried. And she owed them an explanation of some sort.

But her vision swam and then went black and she gave in to the exhaustion that she really should have taken care of before.

* * *

Toshi held the girl against his chest as he looked her over. He could hear her feverish rambling as she slowly faded to unconsciousness and felt a strange tug in the vicinity of his heart when he heard her say his name and mention Shota.

She was worried about them. And about Hizashi.

To be perfectly honest, he wasn't really all that sure what had transpired here. But it was obvious that something had. Ichigo was hurt. And though the injuries were mostly superficial- the damage to the apartment building _wasn't_. Just like the car and the bricks- especially the one that had hit him in the leg- hadn't been.

Shifting her in his arms a little bit so that all of her weight was resting in one arm instead of both- he took a moment to smooth her hair back from her pale face, and wiped some of the blood on her cheek away.

The poor girl was out cold. And unlike before when she had cried, this sleep seemed to be significantly deeper. And she wasn't likely to awaken again for a while.

Taking one last long look around to see if there was anything that he might have missed before, he didn't see anything right off the bat until he shifted her a little bit more in his hold and paused when something white slipped out of her hand and hit the ground by his feet.

Glancing down, he frowned upon seeing what looked like the top part of a bone white mask. And then growled and crushed it underneath his foot when he realized that whatever it was- he didn't like it. There was simply something _wrong_ about it.

And he didn't want it anywhere near Ichigo.

Once it was ground into dust, he turned and started to make his way back to Hizashi knowing that Shota had likely found him back at the apartment by now and was understandably upset about his apartment being damaged and his ward being missing.


	20. Chapter 20

Contrary to what Toshi may have believed, Shota was barely _ten_ steps behind him until he found Ichigo. The moment that they had both found her, he had let his friend go ahead so that he could make his way up to the rooftop of a nearby building and put his visor on so that he could _see_ what the hell was going on.

And he had seen something.

His quirk ability coupled with the use of his visor had given him a slightly infrared-esque, heat seeing ability that helped him to see a somewhat hazy large, _monster-like_ blob going for Ichigo and Toshi after the whole car/brick thing happened.

And for a moment he had freaked.

Like really, _really_ freaked. Partially because Toshi didn't seem to know that it was even there. His primary focus was Ichigo and the fact that she was hurt. And partially because it had actually looked as if they were going to die for a moment there.

He had started to move to jump down and go help them when Ichigo had done some...weird yoga-gymnastic-martial arts move and flipped herself over on top Toshi and _attacked_ it. And while he had questions about the attack and _how_ she managed it- it also dawned on him that Ichigo could obviously see, hear, and quite possibly sense the damned thing.

Very well, he might add. Which was.. _.incredible_ really.

Especially since Toshi seemed to be totally oblivious to the fucking thing.

He stayed where he was until he saw it disappear into thin air after Ichigo's last attack. After which, he'd deactivated his quirk and slipped his visors down to rest around his neck, and then he'd turned and left knowing that Toshi would take care of her until he brought her back.

Besides, he'd left Hizashi sitting all alone in the apartment parking lot, still freaking out about not being able to move. So he really needed to go and check on him just in case some more of those... invisible _things_ were hanging around.

* * *

He was waiting for them when Toshi finally made his way back to the apartment. Shota had already spoken with the guy that owned the stupid thing- and man was he pissed- he kept going on and on about how he should kick _every_ licensed hero out of his buildings. Because apparently to the guy, they were no better than low life scum.

Always running around and breaking other people's shit. Destroying public property and such.

And it was starting to grate on Shota's nerves so much that he'd actually caught himself reaching for the guy's unprotected throat, several times already. The insane desire to _choke_ him until his eyes popped out was beginning to overwhelm him just a tad.

So he was very, _very_ happy when Toshi finally got back since it meant that he could occupy himself with taking Ichigo from him and begin to plan his move into the new house.

I mean, what had happened today- while totally unexpected- also seemed to motivate him into wanting to get the fuck away from the civilian guy getting on his last nerve.

If he didn't, he'd likely wind up beating the crap out of him just to _shut him the fuck up._ And honestly, Ichigo's physical presence in the immediate area reminded him of his present responsibilities towards her and her wellbeing.

And that was good. Really, really good since it probably saved the dumbass bastards miserable life.

But as it happened, the moment that he saw Toshi walk up- he shoved the idiot out of his way and practically dashed over and collected the girl from him, and then settled himself on the ground with her in his lap so that he could look her over and the guy he'd been talking to stormed up and started mouthing off to Toshi while he was still in his All Might form.

Toshi stood there all of three minutes smiling at the guy as he ranted and screamed and carried on before finally having enough of his idiocy and grabbed him by the front of the shirt, and picked him up, and looked at Shouta. His smile taking a little bit of a sharper and more sinister appearance to it.

That wasn't his 'All Might' trademark hero smile.

That was the smile he got when he was two seconds away from _launching_ something/someone into orbit.

He usually only used that smile on specific villains whom had done really, really bad things that upset him. Honestly even Shota was a little bit scared of him when he smiled like that because it usually meant that nothing good was going to happen.

Wrapping his arms protectively around Ichigo, he pulled her as tightly as he dared against his chest and held his breath as Toshi shook the guy in his grasp a little bit to shut him up. The guy squawked some, but inevitably shut up.

"While I am sorry that you're building was damaged. That is not Eraser Head's fault. He is a pro-hero who works best out of the public eye for a reason," Toshi said to the guy in his grasp before then asking Shota, "And what is that reason again, Eraser Head?"

Shota blinked at him but automatically replied anyways. Summing up his job as an underground hero as best as he could since he worked both within and outside of the law. "I do the things that other pro-hero's won't do. I make people disappear."

"Thank you," Toshi said fondly, his dark blue eyes glittered menacingly as he shifted his attention back to the guy. "That makes his work very important on many levels. This has not won him any favors or even made him any friends. In fact many who don't already know him believe him to be nothing more than a villain himself-"

He didn't know why he cringed hearing that. Especially when it was nothing but the truth.

Being an underground pro-hero was _exactly_ like that. Unlike other hero's there was no such thing as a popularity contest. You tended to get bloody because it was the job. You made rivals that were often times either utter idiots or dicks that would happily stab you in the back for money. In many cases you were considered about as unscrupulous as some of the worst villains.

The fact that you did your job so that others would be protected meant little to anyone.

Shota's job was considered the worst hero job imaginable because he did _bad_ things to other people. He hadn't been kidding when he had said that he made people disappear.

Sure he didn't kill them unless he was either given the kill order, or he was pushed into doing so- but it didn't change the fact that he could take some 'average joe' and make him literally disappear off the face of the earth with very little effort. And when he made someone vanish, they tended to stay gone unlike a lot of Toshi's villains.

Those guys popped out of the wood works and followed the man around like puppies. It was ridiculous.

He must have zoned out around then, cause he completely missed the rest of Toshi's little speech and only really became aware of things again when the apartment's owner fell to the ground with a thud and then quickly jumped up and ran off just as fast as his stubby legs could carry him as Toshi exhaled.

"That should keep him from running his mouth again." He said as he turned and looked at Shota again and smiled. A real smile this time as he slowly walked over to him and knelt down on the ground a few inches from him and asked, "How is she?"

Shota blinked at him, and glanced down at Ichigo and upon noting that her face was smooshed up against his chest, slowly loosened his hold on her a little bit before replying, "I think she may need a trip to the ER to dig some of this stuff out of her. She might need something for pain and infection too."

"I figured." Toshi said as he reached out and brushed her hair aside some.

"I also need to start moving everything from the apartment to the new place as soon as I can since we can't get back in there very well."

"I can do that for you while you take her to the ER to get checked out, if you want." Toshi offered. Shota thought for a moment before nodding his head curtly. After all, the sooner the move from the apartment got done, the more likely they were to have a place to rest once he came back.

"Yeah, okay. I'll let you handle it. Do you want me to leave the car for you to use?"

"No. I think I should be okay. My three minutes are up and I'm showing no signs of changing back yet. If I hurry, then I might be able to get everything over to you're new home before I change back. Speaking of- where is you're new home? And also, is there anything in particular that you want set up before you come back?"

"Ichigo's bedroom. If you stay in you're current form then setting it up should be easy. I can always sleep in the living room for tonight if I have too. But I was thinking that since she's a girl- she might need more space than I do. The master bedroom is nice and big. It has it's own bathroom too-"

"I get it," Toshi said with a soft chuckle. "I'll get it fixed up for you both."

"Alright. Thanks."

"Is there anything else?"

It was on the tip of Shota's tongue to tell Toshi to be careful. Though there was a chance that the incident from earlier might have been a random thing- he didn't think it was. Whatever that thing that had gone after Ichigo, she _knew_ what it was and was able to specifically defend against it.

And right now he was a tad bit worried about how to tell Toshi to _watch_ himself when he couldn't _see_ the possible enemy that may/may not be sneaking up on him. He knew that he couldn't just blurt shit out and freak him out.

That kind of carelessness caused mistakes. And such mistakes could often cause people to get hurt or worse. Inevitably though, he decided to say nothing for the moment. And just scan the area one last time before he left his friend so that he could take Ichigo to get taken care of.


	21. Chapter 21

Almost a week had passed since the last incident had happened. And Shota thought that he and Ichigo were settling into their new home quite nicely.

Ichigo had slept for almost three days after the incident had occurred, before finally waking up to her new surroundings and freaked out on him because she had thought that the huge assed blond guy had taken her somewhere she shouldn't be.

He would admit, Toshinori had looked utterly embarrassed that she thought that of his hero form upon waking- that Shota had nearly busted a gut laughing at the man.

But aside from that- it had more or less been smooth sailing.

Not long after Ichigo had finally woken up, Shota had gotten a couple of new pieces of furniture and a few other items to go with the new house so that they would both be comfortable in it. Including a new fridge, a new living room suite, a big TV, some Ichigo 'approved' movies, a radio and some CD's, some carpets and drapes.

Hell he'd even went out and gotten a couple of cats.

Three of them so far.

Nice, adorable, fluffy, loveable little monsters that he and Ichigo both could raise together. Though said lovable little monsters seemed to favor her over him unless he was feeding them. But who cared. He had his new house, a nice kid that kept him on his toes, and _three_ kittens to amuse them both with whenever they were bored.

He was good.

And Ichigo seemed to be too.

She'd apologized to him for the destruction of the apartment.

She hadn't had too because of the extenuating circumstances involved. But she did anyways because she knew that he and Toshi both must have been worried and she was a good kid. A tad bit difficult to understand sometimes, but a good kid nevertheless.

And she had finally also undone what she'd done to Hizashi and apologized to him as well as explained that she had only done whatever it was to him as a precaution because he would have gotten hurt or worse.

And she hadn't wanted to be the reason that his wife and kid lost him.

Hizashi hadn't been pissed about it. He'd had three days of endless coddling from his loving wife and Kyoka both, so he really didn't have a whole lot to be pissed about. Though he did lecture her a little bit on communication.

Because it was something that she really, _really_ needed to work on.

Toshi was staying with them for the time being so that he could keep helping Shota keep an eye on her. And she had even talked to Izuku after she had woken up. The kid had practically been a ball of nervous energy by then. Partially because he'd been worried sick about her since his last visit.

So having her talk to him had been nice.

Shota and Toshi had _shamelessly_ eavesdropped on the whole conversation. Because she had been cooking dinner at the time and they were somewhat reluctant to leave the kitchen while she worked, because that meant that they wouldn't know what she was fixing.

And maybe get to lick or taste anything if she needed someone to taste test something.

Toshi already got to lick the dessert spoon whenever she made something sweet.

And don't thing for a moment that Shota wasn't just a tad bit _upset_ about the blatant show of favoritism towards the blond. Because her desserts were frigging awesome and he was developing a little bit of a sweet tooth himself now.

Shota's time off from work had luckily or unluckily- depending on who one asked, had bled into the first few days of summer vacation for the kids at the school. And so far he'd gotten a call from the principal asking him to be one of the teachers/supervisors at the training camp for the kids, this year.

He'd said yes. And then quickly asked Nemu if he could bring Ichigo along because he felt that socializing with some of the other kids might be good for her...and also because they were still sort of bonding too.

He also sort of planned to see if he could con the girl into maybe sparring with a few people so that he could gauge her skill level in a fight.

Mostly because he needed to know this. And it was something that was important. But also because even when he asked her questions about things like what had happened the day that his apartment had gotten fucked up- she tended to either give him small answers, or none at all.

He also still sort of had high hopes that he could enroll her in U.A. since she had yet to make a choice about school. He'd broken the news about the trip to her over dinner while Toshi was present.

Ya know, just in case he needed to use him as a meat shield or something.

But Ichigo hadn't seemed at all bothered by the news. In fact she had told him that she was actually pretty used to camping and stuff. Her dad had apparently used to chase her around wielding a long, razor sharp machete just to see if he could get her to run into the woods, and survive on her own for a week or so while he hunted her.

And again, both he and Toshi had _longed_ to raise the son of a bitch from the dead so that they could kill him themselves.

Still...Shota couldn't help but feel ever so slightly relieved that Ichigo knew how to take care of herself in the wilderness.

It meant that her chances of surviving if she happened to get lost or injured somehow were fundamentally _greater_ than those who didn't know how to take care of themselves.

It also sort of gave him one less thing to worry about.

At least until he told Toshi that he would be cat sitting until they returned. At which point the man had nearly gone into hysterics because he and one of the kittens were engaging in a weird war of some sort and apparently the kitten was winning.


	22. Chapter 22

The morning that they left, Shota was watching Ichigo say goodbye to Toshi and the kittens with an amused gleam in her blue eyes while he waited by the bus. Right that moment she was saying bye to the one that had sent Toshi into hysterics. Her little baby boy, as she so fondly called him.

He was a chubby little long furred black kitten with a weirdly cute voice and a freaky looking little lion's mane that surrounded his fuzzy little face. And the shameless little beast was eating up the attention that she was giving him like the little attention hog that he was, while he purred up a storm.

"Now you be good for me. And don't do anything terrible to poor Toshi. He's the one with access to all of your food and water, and he'll probably poison you if you bother him too much." She crooned.

Of course, the kitten's purr faltered some upon hearing her words and for a moment there- and even Shota would swear right then and there, that it was intelligent enough to understand the weird threat to it's life. Because the little beast's ears flatted against it's skull and it turned it's head just enough to _glower_ maliciously at Toshi as if it were trying to will him to burst into flames.

"Uh-uh Raphael." Ichigo said as she used her finger to turn the kitten's head back so that it was looking at her again. "No glaring. I want you to _behave_."

The kitten huffed and meowed at her as if it were reluctantly agreeing with her terms before she let it down so that it could trot off in a snit.

Toshi looked at her for a moment in absolute awe of her handling the little monster and couldn't think to say anything beyond, "You're a good kitty-momma, Ichigo."

"Damn straight." She said with a grin as she stepped up to him and gave him a quick hug while telling him in a soft tone that she had a few squirt guns hidden upstairs in her room.

If Raphael didn't behave then he could use those to chase him around with.

Toshi was positively glowing with happiness by the time she moved away from him and grabbed her bag and started to the bus.

Once there, Shota took her bag from her and climbed on board so that he could pack it away for her and then moved back a little bit from the door so that he could help direct her to their seat. Because as much as he wanted her to socialize and make some nice friends her own age, he also had to keep reminding himself that she was a fourteen year old girl under his protection.

And his class as well as the others didn't know _anything_ about her outside of Izuku, Todoroki, Iida and Kyoka. So there were bound to be a few hiccups here and there as far as making friends went. And he would be damned if he let some little asshole bully her.

She might get pissed and OK the little bastard. And he'd have to _let_ her to teach the other kid a lesson about bullying people.

Since the bus had already picked up everyone from his class that was going on the trip- then once he and Ichigo were on board- the bus headed out of the city towards the camp grounds. The trip would last several hours, during which time he'd have to keep an careful eye on everyone to make sure that there weren't any behavioral problems that would need to be nipped in the bud before they reached their destination.

They were about a third of the way through their trip when some of the kids that had been staring curiously at Ichigo, finally seemed to work up the nerve to try striking up a conversation/interrogation. And for the most part, Shota was proud of the way that she handled herself.

She did really well evading the questions that she didn't want to answer because things like her- quirk, abilities, her bra size and what her idea of a perfect date was- wasn't anyone's damned business. Also she was there as a guest. _Not_ a student. So she didn't have to tell anyone squat anymore than she had to listen to any ridiculous 'fake' rules that the second years had come up with.

Telling someone that they had to be their slave and do what they wanted because they were younger, was incredibly stupid and foolish. Shota only had to hear part of the explanation once from one of the second year boys before he took the little shit to task over such foolishness.

Aside from those things though, there was only one small incident worth mentioning at all. And it involved one of Bakugo's little friends taking an instant dislike to Ichigo because she didn't want to trade phone numbers. It probably never even occurred to the kid that she couldn't anyways because she didn't have a cell on her. But that didn't really matter.

He'd taken her lack of response/interest as a rejection- which it was- and had started to throw things like pencil led at her and stuff. However it wasn't until something actually hit her in the eye and she let out a loud yelp that Shota even realized what was happening.

Being one guy looking out for a bunch of kids wasn't easy when said kids outnumbered you fifty something to one. He'd only looked away for a second.

But the moment that he'd heard Ichigo yelp, his attention had automatically snapped back to her for a moment and then he'd started to scan the other kids for the source of her eye injury and saw the boy in question grin smugly as he prepared to throw another...something at her face.

Shota was on him in an instant, slapping whatever he had in his hands, out of them and then grabbing him by the front of his shirt and roughly forcing him back in his seat as he leaned down and told him that if he did it again, he'd be _choking_ on it. Because Shota was going to shove whatever he'd had down his throat.

The boy had paled and promised not to do it again. After which Shota had let him go and returned to Ichigo's seat to check her over and make sure that the damned fool hadn't put her fucking eye out.

Once he was sure that she was okay, he sighed in relief and made a mental note to take the boy aside later for some one on one training/a beating in the hopes of teaching him a lesson about fucking with _his_ kid.

Not long after that the bus finally came to a stop on a mountain about ten miles away from the actual camp, where everyone was told to get off of the bus. Shota was the first person off, followed closely behind by Ichigo, who was slightly curious as to _why_ they were so far away from their destination.

Though she didn't actually voice the question aloud.

Apparently she was content to simply wait and see what was going to happen next. Which worked perfect as far as Shota was concerned. He figured that maybe he could get her to demonstrate her survival skills while everyone else tried to display theirs.

Once everyone was finally off of the bus, another vehicle rolled up and Shota smiled at the welcoming sight of the Wild, Wild Pussycats. The small group of four, were a not only the ones who ran and oversaw a lot of the U.A. training camps for the school. But they were also a pretty well known pro-hero group with cat like characteristics and impressive quirks.

They were great hero's. And even greater people.

Lifting his hand to his mouth, he let out a loud whistle to get everyone to shut up and pay attention as the group walked up to them. They did their group intro real quick, and Shota heard a funny little strangled sound come from Ichigo as she ducked her head in an effort to hide her face.

His lips quirked in an effort not to smile. He supposed that for someone like her, seeing something so...out there from a group of adults was pretty amusing. But he was happy that she was trying not to laugh. The group had worked hard on that intro and it wasn't easy to make a fool of oneself while trying to be professional.

"Hello everyone! And welcome to quirk training camp!" A bubbly woman with a bob cut and brown hair greeted them.

Everyone greeted the group back with a collective, "Hello, pro-hero Pussycats!"

"Before we get this camp started, you're teacher Mr. Aizawa has a few things to say about a special surprise guest present among you all as well as some of the rules. So all of you be good kittens and listen carefully to what he has to say."

"Thanks, Mandalay." Shota said as he grabbed hold of Ichigo's wrist and stepped forward. The sudden shift in everyone's attention elicited a squeak from Ichigo as he tugged her along with him until he was in front of everyone. Letting go of her, he put a hand on her shoulder and quickly introduced her.

"This is Ichigo Kurosaki, the guest present at our camp. She is not a student at U.A. however if she's agreeable then she will be helping some of you to learn some more complex combat moves. As well as sparring with some of you. She is the kid of one of your instructors and you will treat her with the upmost respect while she is here. Say hello to everyone, kid." He finally said to Ichigo, who looked as if she were going to faint for a moment.

But managed to catch herself at the last moment and give everyone a polite- if awkward greeting before he sighed and then started to go over the camp rules. Once that was done, it was up to the Pussycats to do the rest.

"Okay everyone, now as you've already noticed we're quite a ways from the actual camp. What you're going to do is jump down from here, and make your way through the woods to the camp before dark. Once there, you'll have dinner an then go straight to bed to prepare yourselves for tomorrow."

"Ichigo-" Shota said, causing the girl to look at him questioningly before he then suggest, "Why don't you show these kids how things are done."

She looked over to the edge of the mountain and then back as he said with a mischievous grin. "Unless you're scared that is." She narrowed her eyes at him and then walked over to the edge and stepped off. However instead of falling like he and everyone else expected her to, she simply seemed to remain in place for a moment before shooting back at him.

"Actually, I think I'm going to go check out the mountain and do some exploring. Later!"


	23. Chapter 23

Shota wasn't really sure what shocked him more.

The fact that Ichigo seemed to have the ability to...fly? Hover? _Levitate?_ Or the fact that she fucking disappeared into thin air. Or the fact that she left absolutely _no_ trace at all of her presence.

He supposed that it didn't matter much since either way once she was gone. Vanished into the sea of emerald green in the far yonder.

"So..."

"Don't say it-" He warned as he shot Ragdoll, the annoying green haired woman from the WWP group, a withering glare that seemed to shut her up for now. Though it didn't keep her from sniggering at him any. After all, he'd told them that Ichigo didn't _have_ a quirk.

She was augmented, sure. But not because of a quirk.

And yet...to be able to fly off like that at the drop of a hat- it had looked a little bit like she maybe _did_ have one and simply didn't like admitting it. Maybe because of how she'd been treated in the past? Whatever, he'd figure it out inevitably. But for now, he had other things that he needed to do.

"Okay everyone, take off. I want all of you to reach the camp before nightfall." He said as he gave the kids the green light to start moving their asses. He wanted to go on ahead to the camp and get his and Ichigo's stuff put up so that they could relax a little bit later.

He and the WWP's hung around to make sure that each of the kids managed to jump off of the mountain without much issue. Though he'd had to actually kick one or two of the students off due to their fear of heights. But once that was done and they were all gone, he sighed and then turned to the others as Tiger said.

"So...that was her huh?"

He looked at the taller man questioningly before he then elaborated, "The girl that defeated the hero killer, Stain. She certainly doesn't seem like much at first glance."

"No. No she really doesn't." Shota said wearily.

"Will she be okay on her own?" Pixie-bob asked next. She looked slightly worried to Shouta, so he tried to ease her mind a bit.

"She should be. The girl has a frighteningly easy knack for stuff. Besides, she told me before we even came here that she knows how to survive in the woods."

"Really? _How?_ She looked like a total city girl to me." Ragdoll said.

"She...let's things slip on occasion about her past. Things from her childhood that are often times best left unsaid," Shota said uneasily before hesitating for a moment before finally tacking on. "She told me and Toshinori that her dad used to take her out and chase her around in the woods with a machete as part of her 'survival' training."

To say that each member of the WWP's looked shocked and outright _pissed_ would be an understatement. Tiger, let out a loud rumbling growl ask he asked in a low and dangerous tone, "He hurt her?"

"He outright _abused_ her under the guise of training her. I don't know everything just yet but it's possible that things got much, much worse than what she's mentioned so far... But even I'm more than a little bit worried about what she might mention next. And I shudder to think of what would happen if someone sets her off."

"You mentioned before that she would be sparring with and helping to teach the kids some combat moves? Is that a wise idea?"

"I'm not totally one hundred percent, but I think as long as she's supervised then it should be fine. I mainly want to see what she knows and gauge her skill level."

The WWP's seemed to understand, and though Tiger was the last to say anything about the future lessons that Ichigo would be involved in, and even Shota had to agree that putting her up against a non augmented person just might be a very, very bad idea. Especially so far out in the wild where there were no immediate hospitals or anyone trained in the medical field that could take care of someone if things went too far.

And Tiger had kindly suggested that for lessons and spars- that he be paired up with her since he was far more likely to walk away unscathed. Shota agreed and told him that he'd pull Ichigo aside and explain that to her once she made it to camp.

* * *

Several hours had passed since Ichigo had disappeared into the woods and Shota was slowly beginning to get worried that maybe she had exaggerated her skills a little bit. He was waiting around outside of the building where everyone would be bunking while they were all there, anxiously scanning the woods as the sky slowly, yet steadily, darkened.

Everyone else had already managed to make their way to camp. They were all a little bit roughed up, tired, suffering for chigger's, poison oak, and a multitude of allergic reactions to the local plant life- and maybe a little bit worse for the wear. But they were _there_.

And now the exhausted lot were either sitting or lying where they had collapsed upon their arrival while the girls from WWP's cooked everyone something to eat before bed.

Shota was starting to think that he should go out and maybe look for her when she came walking through the underbrush a short ways from the clearing. Upon seeing her figure walking out of the woods, he let out a heavy sigh and tipped his head back on his neck so that he was looking up at the sky.

Silently sending the gods in heaven a silent word of thanks before putting his poker face on.

"Where have you been?" He asked in a _irked_ tone as she came walking up to him.

She didn't look the least bit bothered by his 'dad' tone. In fact, if anything, it seemed to make her happier to see him as she shrugged her shoulders and simply said, "Here and there."

Which might not have been totally accurate. But it was probably pretty damned close because she had just spent several hours chasing after a whole litter of baby bunnies that she'd lucked out on finding. She'd had some serious fun doing it too.

If not for the fact that she'd lost track of time long ago, she would have probably finished up exploring and shit long before dark. But thankfully, baby bunnies were enough to distract her and let her let loose a little bit and use her unnatural speed some.

I mean, she couldn't exactly let loose like she had today in the city.

There were too many people, places and things. Out here in the mountains you had a choice between either rocks, trees, or other mountains. And frankly, she liked the limited choice better since it meant that she could be a little bit more reckless with her abilities and no one would suffer for it here.

"Here and there. You disappeared into thin air."

"I did not," She said.

"You did too! And _why_ did you say that you don't have a quirk, when you do?"

"I don't." She argued back causing him to growl at her and snap.

"Ichigo you flew!"

"No I didn't. I was running on air. There is a difference." She said smartly. And he couldn't tell whether or not she was trying to start an argument with him. But he didn't like her answer any. Besides, he reasoned, a person couldn't _run_ on air. It simply wasn't possible to.

"You can't run on air Ichigo. You flew. You have a quirk. _Admit it_." He said stubbornly. She gave him an odd look and thinned her lips a little bit and then shook her head and walked off to go and mingle a little bit with the other kids. Leaving him standing there, just a little bit shocked that she'd walked away from him like that.

Especially since she'd not done so before.

"You could have handled that a little bit better." Tiger's voice sounded from above him, on the building roof. Shota jumped a little bit and twisted his head around to look at him since he hadn't expected the man to be observing his interaction with Ichigo.

But he supposed that since Tiger and everyone else was more than a little bit curious about the girl, then he should expect her to get a _lot_ more attention than she may be comfortable with.

Tiger jumped down to the ground, landing deftly on the balls of his feet a few inches from Shota before then saying, "She didn't seem like she wanted to argue about her ability. In fact, it looked a lot like she was trying to get you to drop the subject altogether."

"Then she shouldn't have argued with me."

"Or you shouldn't have argued with her," Tiger pointed out gently. Causing Shota to flinch a little bit before the other man said, "She probably wanted to talk to you about what she did today once she separated from the rest of us. I'd wager that her biological father never really let her talk to him about things with him any. So I can understand why she looked so happy to see you."

"Is this you're weird way of coaching me as a parent?" Shota asked him. Tiger shrugged his broad shoulders.

"She's a kitten. Kitten's are complicated creatures. Emotionally and mentally anyways," Tiger said as he lifted a paw and started to groom it some. "If she were my kitten, I would've groomed her while she talked."

"Please tell me that you aren't suggesting that I," Shota gulped a little bit as he choked out in a strangled tone, "groom her with my tongue?"

Tiger rolled his eyes at his stupidity and stopped grooming his paw for a moment and grabbed Shota's hand and slapped a brush into his palm. At which the dark haired man nearly collapsed to his knees with relief as Tiger said.

"Watch the tangles and snares. Nothing upsets a kitten more than having their fur pulled."


	24. Chapter 24

_First time parents are idiots._ Ichigo thought to herself as she wandered along the long tables where the other kids all sat in groups with their classmates and friends. She was slowly making her way over to one of the semi-empty tables to sit down and sulk a little bit when she heard several different voices call out to her at once.

Three distinctly male voices called out her name in unison. "Ichigo!" Followed by Kyoka's enthusiastic shout as the girl stood up and waved excitedly.

"Hey, come sit with us!"

Ichigo looked back and forth between them all, and wondered why she had to make any sort of choice between them when she could just sit with them all. And instead waved the lot of them over to her location.

This way no one would feel slighted for having not been chosen to sit with.

The four stood up and started to walk over to her semi-empty table. Followed by at least one or two _extra_ people that she hadn't met before. _Well, this should be fun._ She thought wryly as she settled herself in her chosen seat and waited patiently for the others to sit down too.

The others seemed to like playing musical chairs with one another. Either that or there was a weird hierarchy amongst them that they seemed to stick too damn near religiously. She had Izuku sit on one side of her, Iida and the other boy that she'd met before sit on the other side of him.

Some blond kid that she'd _never_ met before in her life, but might already dislike because he had a sinister glare on his face and was outrageously rude to the others when they had all been grabbing their seats.

And of course there was Kyoka and another girl whom had both grabbed a seat right across from her.

"Okay, I'm effectively boxed in on pretty much all sides," She said, trying to hide the fact that she was almost literally surrounded was making her a tad bit nervous as she then asked, "So what's up everyone?"

"I haven't been able to see you since last time and I've been dying to." Izuku said in a rush. She smiled at him and nodded her head. And then pointed to Iida to indicated that he was to speak next.

He smiled at her awkwardly, and asked her how she'd been doing. Which was sweet of him. She gave him a short reply, and thanked him for asking. And then pointed to Todoroki who flushed a little bit and asked her about her day. She told them all that she spent hours chasing after baby bunnies in a clearing several miles from the camp. And she had a lot of fun doing it.

Next up was Kyoka who not only spat word vomit at her, but also introduced her pretty friend Momo. Who apparently could use her quirk to create things.

Which was fascinating, and all, but not really any of her business.

Still...she shook hands with the girl, who was not very subtly sizing her up and nearly rolled her eyes at the insane thought of anyone thinking that they could compete with her over/for anything.

Competition outside of rivalry, sports, and sparring was a huge waste of her time. Though something about the way that Momo was sizing her up told her that she was jealous of her for something. Which was a new one to her since people didn't normally get jealous of her.

They normally got pissed and tried to kill her. But never jealous, so she didn't know what to do with her.

"Hello, Momo, it's nice to meet you." She said politely.

"Likewise. Now I see why Kyoka can't seem to shut up about you," _Ah_. That was the reason behind the jealousy. She must have a crush on the other girl or something. "You are very pretty."

"Huh?!" Ichigo squeaked out before looking at Kyoka and then not too subtly leaned half way across the table and hissed out, "What the hell have you been saying behind my back?!"

"Just that you let me help you panty and bra shop." Kyoka said unrepentantly. Ichigo groaned and banged her head on the table while Izuku sniggered at her. Her embarrassment was adorable to him. And he made a mental note to at least try and embarrass her as often as possible.

While Iida and Todoroki both leaned forward in their seats a little bit and looked at Kyoka in keen interest. Obviously thinking that Ichigo and panty/bra shopping was an interesting choice of topic for any conversation.

The last boy, however... "So you helped the lesbo find pretty stuff to help her impress others with her pussy and tits, big deal."

Ichigo's head snapped up automatically and she slowly turned her head to glare at the jerk. "I'm not a lesbo. And my body is none of you're damned business. So watch your frigging _mouth._ " She warned him in an annoyed tone.

The boy just smirked at her in an evil manner, totally unimpressed by her warning. And without _any_ reason whatsoever-stupid or otherwise- reached over and before she even knew what he was about, he had the hem of her shirt in his hand and jerked it up over her head.

Causing a domino like effect of events that seemed to happen almost simultaneously.

Kyoka and Momo both jumped up and screamed in alarm. While Iida, and Todoroki both jumped out of their seats and grabbed the blond and forced him away from her. Almost tearing her shirt off of her in the process since the guy hadn't bothered to let go of it just yet.

While Izuku quickly grabbed her up out of her seat and pressed her nearly bare torso to his own body and then curled himself around her in an effort to _hide_ her from everyone present.

However as nice as it was to not be flashing her boobs to everyone.

There were still a _lot_ of people present who could see her scars and that along with the fact that the brat had just practically partially undressed her- had caused Ichigo to freeze up in stunned disbelief and horror as her guardian came running up and grabbed the laughing blond and viciously jerked him back.

Again, he still hadn't bothered to let go of her shirt even by this point- she Ichigo wound up nearly being jerked back by her neck since the only thing that was still in one piece was the neckline.

Luckily Izuku was a _beyond_ quick thinker and noticed the problem right away and grabbed hold of it in both hands and _tore_ it off of her before she would up being strangled by the stupid thing seeing as she was a little bit busy freaking out.

She was vaguely aware of another adult, one of the women maybe, bringing something over to her- a blanket?- and Izuku and being carefully wrapped in it without Izuku letting her go any. By this point her whole body was starting to shake like a leave and she was having difficulty breathing.

She could make out the vague sounds of people yelling not too far away. Though it sounded like it was coming from a distance at the moment. The angry snarling of her guardian as he handed the boy over to someone else as he then turned his attention to her.

"Midoriya!" He said automatically. His tone telling the boy exactly what he wanted right then.

"I think she's having a panic attack." Izuku said in a hushed tone as his sensei moved closer to check on his kid.

Shota knelt down next to the green haired boy, and reached out to gently touch his not-daughter's face. And noted the lack of reaction and off breathing pattern. And made a mental note to kick the _fuck_ out of Bakago in a little bit for this fiasco as he reached out again, this time with both hands to take her from Izuku's grasp with a slightly grateful look at the boy.

Izuku thinned his lips to refrain from commenting on the present situation and the possible repercussions that it would have on her. And simply decided to keep a close eye on her when his sensei wasn't around to do so, and let the man take her.

The weirdly gentle way that Aizawa handled her seemed almost sweet to anyone that didn't know Ichigo's personal history. But to Izuku, Iida, and Todoroki- it was simply sign of just how fragile Ichigo really was at the moment. Which was very, very bad to expose here, around so many kids.

Especially since there were a lot of school bullies and perverts present among the students whom didn't like Aizawa very much. And would likely single her out after this incident for one _unsavory_ reason or another.

Once the man had Ichigo in his arms, he was up and moving. Trying to remove Ichigo from the area quickly so that he could try calming her down and maybe see if she had any ideas on how to punish Bakago for this mess. And even if she told him to let it go- he wasn't going to.

He already planned to personally make the boy's life hell from now on.

After all, there was a limit to the bullying and disrespect that he could safely get away with. And this...this was a line that _never_ should have been goddamn crossed. And he was going to make it his personal life mission to beat some damned manners into the boy before the summer camp was over with.


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so- since my first bleach/MHA fic has been pretty well received, I'm now thinking of trying to write a few more. 
> 
> one idea I've had is where ichigo adopted and raised izuku, and bakago has a serious crush on her despite the fact that she terrorizes him often. 
> 
> and I'm seriously digging Aizawa/fem ichigo pairings. i'd love to do one where she's like a teacher or something at UA and he had a huge frigging crush on her.

Even once they were alone, Shota was pissed to know that Ichigo was practically in a catatonic state of shock for nearly two in a half hours. _Two in a half!_

That was two in a half hours of trying to snap her out of her stupor with wet rags, senseless 'comfort' chatter, a phone call to Toshinori so that he and the cats could take turns 'talking' to her.

All of which got absolutely _no_ reaction whatsoever.

So he just sat himself down with her redressed in a clean shirt, and re wrapped in the blanket that Pixie-bob had wrapped around her when Izuku had been trying to hide her- simply waiting helplessly for her to snap out of her funk. It was a little bit after ten pm when she finally came back to her senses with a blink of her dazed looking eyes.

She didn't say anything to him.

She didn't cry, didn't smile- she was just...eerily _blank_. Almost mechanical even. She pushed herself free of his grasp and went over to her duffle bag and grabbed a change of clothing out of it and then practically ran out of the room before he could so much as ask her if she was okay.

Sitting back in his chair, Shota was forced to wait another half hour until she came back before finally managing to ask her anything. She walked back into the room with her hair damp, and wearing her fresh clothing. So she'd apparently run to the locker room and showered and possibly even cried for a little while in peace.

Okay, he could handle this.

 _Hopefully._ His mind supplied causing him to cringe a little bit as he watched Ichigo walk over to the area of the room where her stuff had been carefully laid out by him earlier in the day, and flopped down on it in a graceless manner.

"Are you okay kid?"

"If I said 'fuck no' would you hold it against me?" He heard her say in a raspy tone as she finally looked at him. Sure enough, she _had_ cried while she'd bathed. Her eerie neon blue eyes were red rimmed and just a little bit puffy.

"I doubt that I would ever be able to hold it against you to not be okay. Especially after what had happened earlier." He said gently.

"Okay." She said tiredly as she looked away from him and reached up with one hand to rub absently at her forehead, as a small frown marred her pretty face.

"I'm planning to punish the boy that-" Her head snapped up and her eyes locked on his face. Her blue eyes alight with something that he'd never seen before in her. Something that he couldn't quite place. "Anyways, I wanted to know if maybe you had any suggestions as far as his punishment goes."

Ichigo thought carefully for a few moments before recalling that he had mentioned earlier in the day that he wanted her to 'teach' some of the other kids specific combat moves and such. And slowly smiled as she thought of all of the absolutely _terrible_ things that she could do to the jerk to pay him back.

"I have an idea," She finally said. Shota remained silent since he'd figured that much just by watching the shift in her expression. "You want me to teach the kids some stuff-" It wasn't a question. "Then I'll teach them a very specific crash course in how to deal with an asshole."

He cocked his head a little bit at her comment and wondered what kind of stuff she had in mind as he asked cautiously, "Should I be worried that you plan to murder him?"

"No," She assured him. Flat out murdering the boy would be too kind in her opinion. Besides, why would she kill him for a simple wardrobe malfunction when she could just hit him where it _really_ hurt? "But I can't promise that he'll be totally in one piece for a little while once I'm done."

"You're going to really clean his clock huh?" He asked with a slight smirk.

"No. But I am going to make him cry like a little bitch."

Shota didn't really need to ask her anything else for the moment. He merely promised to let her at the boy tomorrow morning, and almost immediately after she went to bed. Which left him sitting up for a little bit longer, thinkin about what she might have planned for Bakago and wondered if the boy was deserving of his sympathy, cause she was undoubtedly going to give him hell.

He finally fell asleep a few hours later, into the early morning hours deciding that the boy had everything Ichigo planned, coming to him.

* * *

Ichigo rolled out of bed at the first sign of light filtering through the window of her/her guardian's room, and quietly went about dressing for the day, putting her hair up in a ponytail, and then slipping on her shoes so that she could go and do some warm up's for later.

She had a million in one different ideas swirling around in her mind, and she needed to sort out the most humiliating, and mind boggling ones that the boy would never see coming and certainly wouldn't be able to defend against.

Walking out of the building, she took a moment to look around. Knowing that it was as early as it was, made things a little bit easier on her. Especially when it seemed as if there wasn't anyone else up just yet. So of course, she nearly screamed the whole place down when one of the WWP's jumped out of a tree just ahead of her when she started walking, and nearly tripped over her own feet trying to get away from... _him_?

This person was a guy, right? Maybe one with extremely weird fashion sense, but a guy nevertheless.

"You're up early this morning kitten." The guy commented while Ichigo was doing her damnedest to try and keep her heart from bursting through her ribcage with her hand.

She hadn't had a scare like this one since...well, the freakishly scary birthday party that everyone had thrown for her a while back. The one where Kenpachi and Ikkaku had both jumped out of a cake in loin clothes- after being conned by a _very_ drunk Rangiku- into thinking that she would for some ungodly reason, _like_ that.

"I really wish that people wouldn't jump out at me like that," She finally said as she dropped her hand away from her chest. "Do you always drop down on people like that?"

The cat guy grinned at her in a lazy manner. And she took a moment to notice that despite being dressed in a two piece ruffle and lace outfit and a skirt- the guy had strangely cat-like qualities.

"I was waiting for someone to get up," He finally said. "I didn't expect it to be you though. Everyone has been worried about you since last night. We wanted to check up on you but...Shota didn't seem to want anyone present until he was sure that you would be okay... Pixie-bob, Ragdoll, and Mandalay were all quite furious about what happened to you."

"O-Oh. I'm sorry to hear that." Ichigo said awkwardly, feeling ever so slightly at a loss here since she wasn't sure what she should/shouldn't be saying.

The cat guy looked at her oddly for a moment and then pointed at her and said, "You have self esteem issues."

"Huh?"

"You apologize for things that aren't you're fault because in some strange way you feel at fault when you shouldn't. You have self esteem issues... Does Shota know that you have self esteem issues?"

"Uh..."

He sighed and his ears and tail drooped slightly. "I take that as a no. Maybe I should mention it to him later?"

 _"No!"_ Ichigo blurted out in a panicked sounding voice.

For some reason that she didn't quite fathom, the very idea of having her lack of self esteem mentioned to her guardian upset her. Maybe because they both were still sort of technically getting to _know_ each other. And maybe she didn't want him to feel overwhelmed by how much work he needed to put into her or something.

Whatever the reason- she just...didn't want him to know if he already didn't.

"No," The guy said in a slightly curious tone. "But kitten's are supposed to have wonderful, high self esteem! It make's them confident in themselves and their abilities! It simply isn't healthy to have low self esteem. So if he doesn't know then he needs to be told so that he can fix it."

"He's already swamped with trying to _fix_ other things. I don't want to accidentally give the poor guy a heart attack or stroke." Ichigo said, totally unaware of the fact that her guardian had finally woken up himself and was currently looking for her. And was standing right behind her when she said this.

"Fix what?" She heard her guardian's voice suddenly ask curiously, from somewhere behind her, and she let out a startled yelp. And tried for the second time that morning, to prevent her heart from escaping her chest as cat guy practically rolled around on the ground laughing at her.

 _The jerk._ She thought as she shot the skirt wearing muscle man a dark glare.

Cat guy just grinned at her in amusement and jumped back up to his feet.

"Kitten and I were just talking-"

"About?" Shota asked curiously. His dark eyes trained on his not-daughter's back. Her reaction to being snuck up on was pretty cute. He'd have to tell Toshi about it once they were finally home again.

Cat guy started to open his mouth to tell him about Ichigo's self esteem issues but the girl puled a fast one and before he even realized what was going on, the girl had grabbed him and _flung_ him into the woods. Where he landed in a thicket of bushes well over _four hundred_ and fifteen feet away where he could very plainly see her grab Shota and direct him away from the area.

* * *

"Ichigo..." Shota said as his not-daughter pulled him along behind her. "Why did you toss Tiger into the woods like that?"

"Because he talks too much." She said honestly.

"Mmm-hm. He does. However that didn't give you a right to do that to him."

"I know. I plan to apologize a lot to him later." She said as she kept tugging him along. He hummed again in agreement. He would remind her personally later to apologize to Tiger for throwing him like that.

"So what were you two talking about?" He finally asked again.

"Nothing important-" She assured him as she then suddenly asked, "Does anyone here know a _lot_ about hand to hand and martial arts? Cause I need a sparring partner to help me warm up a little bit."

"You're really looking forward to hurting Bakago huh?" She didn't say anything in response to his observation. And to be honest, he was pretty sure that he didn't want her to really say anything about what she was going to do to the boy. Plausible deniability was a beautiful thing, after all.

Finally he sighed and said. "I know a bit about hand to hand...if you don't mind sparring with me, that is."

"Depends," Ichigo said as she abruptly stopped walking and released his hand from her grasp. "Am I going to be grounded for not pulling my punches?"

He blinked at her as he mulled her question over for a moment before deciding that he couldn't exactly ground her for showing him what she could do. They were at a training camp after all. The entire point of being there was to _train_.

And sparring counted as a form of training.

"I won't ground you for not pulling you're punches." He promised her as he reached out and gently took her smaller hand in his own and began to lead her this time. Out of the clearing and over towards some of the training grounds that made up part of the camp.

Once he figured that they were far enough from the building and such, he let her hand go and moved a little way's out and took up a fighting stance as she did the same. The two of them exchanged blows for the better part of an hour. And Shota was beginning to regret his promise to her.

Especially when she knocked him almost completely _through_ a tree trunk.

Almost, of course, being the operative word.

Still, he back was throbbing like a son of a bitch and he could already feel bruises forming as he staggered away from the tree a little bit before finally calling a halt to their spar.

"Okay, okay- I think you're warmed up now." He wheezed as she slowly walked up to him and gently took hold of his arm and pushed some of her regenerative ability into him to heal his injuries. Once he was healed, Shota took a deep breath in relief at feeling the aches and pains caused by their spar disappearing bit by bit.

Murmuring a soft word of thanks to her for healing him, he rolled his shoulders and popped his spine and neck and then paused as he heard some laughter coming from the vicinity of the outdoor dining area. "It sounds like the other kids are finally awake."

"Yeah."

"Come on and let's go and grab something to eat before you beat the hell out of Bakago." He said as he slipped an arm around her shoulders and directed her back in the direction that they had come from.

Upon reaching the dinning area, Shota noted that Ichigo had gone eerily silent. Her expression was also carefully shuttered as she looked around the various tables to see just how many people were there.

Everyone was sitting in little groups here and there waiting for breakfast. All of them talking and laughing until some of them noticed Shota and Ichigo. The second that they were pointed out to some of the others, a lot of the kids either went totally silent and stared at the two. Or some of them pointed at Ichigo and whispered amongst themselves.

Slowly slipping his arm out from around Ichigo's shoulders, Shota gave her a brief look, trying to convey that everything was going to be okay since he knew that this was incredibly _difficult_ for her.

She just thinned her lips a little bit in displeasure and then moved away from his side as she spotted Izuku and a few others step outside.

The boy waved her over the second that he saw her, and she took a moment to sigh as she slowly walked over. Having no idea what she was supposed to do. But knowing that she should probably thank him for helping to protect her modesty yesterday.

"Ichigo!" The boy practically wrapped himself around her like a boa constrictor the moment that she was within his reach. Staggering back a step or so she automatically tried to pull him off of her. But dammit- the guy was a lot stronger than he looked! And he had a frigging death grip on her that would just about make any actual boa constrictor's positively jealous.

Honestly it was a wonder her insides weren't being crushed.

"A-Are you part snake?" She asked him, causing him to stiffen up a little bit and look at her funny before realizing that she had been trying to pry him off of her and abruptly let her go with an embarrassed flush.

"Sorry! I just-" He wanted to tell her that he was happy to see her back to normal. And maybe ask her if she was okay, but she cut him off with a softly spoken.

"It's fine, Izuku."

"Are you okay?" One of the other kids asked her cautiously. She blinked at the speaker, who was a girl with long dark hair and wide round eyes.

"I- yeah. I'm sorry miss, but I don't think that we've met. Have we?" Ichigo said awkwardly. The girl smiled at her almost shyly at her and introduced herself as Tsuyu. But for some odd reason her friends called her Froppy.

Ichigo introduced herself to her in a friendly manner and even shook hands with her before another kid- a boy with flame red hair and garnet colored eyes, stepped forward and introduced himself to her as Eijiro. He was also apparently the kid that nearly put her eye out on the bus yesterday.

And while she wasn't particularly sore about that, it was still nice to have a name to go with his face since she sucked at remembering some stuff.

"Hey, I'm sorry about what Bakugo did to you yesterday. It wasn't cool at all." He said and then asked her if she needed anyone to help her hold the guy down so that she could hit him. Ichigo thanked him for the offer, but she'd be fine without the help.

After that a couple more boys- one of which was a tall black bird-like guy, another was a blond with a tail, and the last one was a tall well built guy with silvery colored hair and a mask covering the bottom of his face- all introduced themselves to her as well.

Each one commenting on how rude, uncouth, and cruel Bakago's actions towards her the previous evening had been. Ichigo didn't really know what to say about their thoughts on the matter so she just mutely nodded her head feeling more that just a little bit...weirded out by everyone's attention and such.

And by the time breakfast was served to the lot of them, she must have met well over half of the kids present.

But even stranger than that, was the fact that when the boy, Bakago finally showed his face to grab some food- he was sporting a terrible looking black eye. And Izuku couldn't stop smiling for some reason. Someone finally explained to her the reason behind the blond boy's black eye, Izuku positively _glowed_ with pride when she looked at him and winked.

Breakfast was over with fairly quickly after that. Everyone having been fed, and the teachers now hopped up on coffee- her guardian made a quick announcement that today Ichigo was going to teach a very special class to everyone on hand to hand. Quirks were not allowed unless she gave her permission to use them.

And then after that, he told Bakago that since he liked to be a jerk all the damned time and _hurt_ people so much then he could play the part of the villain in the lesson that she was going to teach.

The boy just rolled his eyes and muttered a rude sounding, "Whatever." And then walked off a little ways to wait on everyone else.

Once everyone had placed their used dishes and such in the designated area, they all went to where Aizawa stood along with a couple of the other teachers after which the man grabbed Ichigo and then led them all to a decent sized clearing almost a half mile away where she and Bakago walked over to a circle made out of sand bags while everyone else either sat down on the ground to observe or remained standing.

Her guardian gave her the green light and Ichigo had to take a calming breath or two to steady her nerves as she faced everyone and started talking, "Good morning everyone. All of you don't know me, or maybe you do and you just don't know me very well. My name is Ichigo Kurosaki, I'm fourteen years old and you're sensei, Aizawa has been chomping at the bit to convince me to go to your school. And I have to say, that after yesterday's incident with blondy here- I'm seriously not that _impressed_ by the future hero's currently present."

Several people gave her a thumbs up to encourage her to continue while others looked just a bit upset at hearing her words.

She couldn't blame them any. After all, everyone there had worked hard to get where they were today. Having someone say that they weren't all that impressed by their efforts had to be difficult for them. Practically like a slap in the face really. Still she pressed on.

"Now, before we get really started here, I'm going to tell you a little bit about myself. And then I'll move on to teaching you how to lay a baddie sorry that he ever tangled with any of you- To begin, I came from a very secluded town in japan. My home town isn't well known- and a lot of us like it that way for a specific reason. Now the first thing you need to know about my home town...is that no one born there has a quirk of _any_ kind." She looked out among the faces of the other kids and noted the shocked and dismayed expressions and kept going.

"In a town of over thirty thousand people the number of people below the age of thirty born with even the smallest and slightest of super human, augmented abilities- can literally be counted on both hands. Of the ten that can be counted...only myself and five others are currently still alive today."

"Another thing that you should know about my home town...was that there was no such thing as a pro-hero there. There was never anyone to help us during times of great need. We either helped ourselves or we died screaming in the streets." There was a collective gasp, more shocked and disbelieving looks. Ichigo sighed and wondered vaguely if she should have not mentioned that. But the very fact that there had been no pro-hero's was a significant fact about her hometown and even upbringing.

"Now, you're here to learn some hand to hand. Which is definitely something that you will need in the future just in case something happens and you can't use your quirk. It's also helpful in cases of self defense, and the skill- as long as you don't go around picking fist fights with every Tom, Dick and Harry that you come across- will prove to be an important part of you're hero arsenal. Mainly because it's something that doesn't require a quirk to work for you. And depending on what you learn here today, you can even keep adding to it-" She was in the middle of her explanation when someone raised a hand and upon seeing her falter, called out a question.

"How do you know hand to hand?"

Followed by someone else shouting, "Yeah! You aren't a student here! How do we know that anything that you teach will be useful?"

Ichigo blinked and looked slightly uncomfortable and was temped just a little bit to tell the brats to shut the hell up. But decided against it at the last moment and simply said, "I've been taught specific fighting styles, including several forms of mixed martial arts, boxing, kick boxing and hand to hand- both professionally and unprofessionally- since I was...about four. And earlier this morning I sparred with Aizawa and sort of kicked his ass."

Everyone looked towards the man who begrudgingly admitted, "It's true. She did. She...kicked the ever loving hell out of me."

Ichigo had to duck her head to hide her face for a moment otherwise he might have seen her lips twitch in amusement. There was a bunch of hushed whispering among the kids and Ichigo thinned her lips and patiently waited for them all to fall silent again so that they could continue with the lesson.

Bakago was looking a little bit bored and she was more than a little bit tempted to wipe that stupid look off of his face with a nice backhand.

Everyone finally fell silent again, thanks purely to the interference of one of the WWP girls. After which I chigo picked up with the first lesson. Be _unpredictable_. And to prove her point- she nailed Bakago across the face with a one two combo, a quick and vicious uppercut to the chin and then grabbed him by the nuts. And smiled menacingly at the boy who was currently staring at her wide eyed.

A sentiment that was obviously shared by others since her actions caused every male present to either scream, gape, flinch, or hide behind someone else.

_This is going to be a fun lesson._


	26. Chapter 26

Shota let out a low whistle of appreciation as he watched Ichigo tear into Bakago like she was demon possessed. She really hadn't lied when she said that she was going to make the boy cry like a little bitch. The moment that her hand closed around his groin- she fucking had him whimpering.

His expression was one of horror, dread, and so very much _fear_ that it would have simply been awesome if he had wet himself right then and there in front of god and everyone. However since this was supposed to be a lesson for everyone, Ichigo had merely used her grip on his groin to prove a point to the other kids before moving on.

Lesson one was perhaps one of the most important lessons that she could have taught anybody.

Being unpredictable was a _huge_ part of being able to fight well. If you're opponent could read you and your moves- then you might as well give up right then. You were only delaying your inevitable defeat.

Another huge part of the student's hero training _was_ hand to hand combat since it was a very _bad_ idea to just solely rely on one's quirk in a fight.

The only reason that they were focusing more on the quirk stuff right now was because there were a lot of kids at the camp who've yet to fully master their quirks, and the extra training was needed to help them along.

The fact that his not-daughter could not only incorporate this into her lesson, and drive her point home while simultaneously pummeling the crap out of Bakago was more than a little bit impressive to him. It was apparently impressive to Vlad, and the others too.

Ichigo was turning out to be a very talented young lady for a multitude of reasons. One of which was why he found himself filming her teaching the others with his cell phone. He'd send the video to Toshi and principal Nemu later to see what they thought.

Because even if she decided not to attend UA as a student, then maybe she could get a job there as a part time teacher. It certainly couldn't hurt anything. Right?

The lesson continued for another thirty minutes, and by the end of it- even he could tell that she was beginning to hold herself back since Bakago already likely had a concussion, several missing teeth, a bloody nose and another black eye. And that was just what she had done to him above the belt. He shuddered to even think on how much the boy was hurting below it.

That groin grab had to have hurt him significantly considering how petrified he'd been.

Finally Ichigo decided that enough was enough, and grabbed the blond and slipped an arm around his torso and began to help him over to Shota and the other teachers. Once there, Mandaly and Ragdoll both grabbed the first aid kit and started to do what they could to fix him up as Ichigo then turned to everyone and told them that class was over.

The other teachers each had the kids pair off in groups of six. Three boys and three girls to practice some of the moves that they saw Ichigo execute on Bakago and then led their little groups off to practice.

"How's he looking?" Ichigo asked Ragdoll curiously.

"Well...not good. He's got a concussion, and might have a broken nose, he's also missing four back teeth and both of his eyes are swollen shut. He's very badly bruised... And these injuries could take weeks to heal- Was this what you were aiming for?"

"More or less," Ichigo said as she gently nudged the woman aside and dropped down to her knees in front of the blond. "Oi, blondy. Did you learn anything from this? Be honest."

He flipped her off. And Ichigo snorted and muttered something about annoying brats. And then reached out and pushed some of her regeneration ability into him, and sighed because this seemed to now be a more common occurrence than she had first wanted.

After all, it wasn't a big thing to heal one or two people here or there. But do it too much, too often and you wind up exhausting yourself.

Bakago held himself strangely still until his face was back to the way it was before and then jumped up, tearing himself away from her. He didn't say anything. No, thank you for fixing me up. No, what the fuck was that shit about? Nothing.

He just looked at her very oddly and then glanced at her guardian and told him that he wanted to go practice the moves that she'd demonstrated on him. So...he defiantly learned something. She just wasn't sure it boded very well for her.

But no matter.

If the time ever came where he decided to try some of her own techniques on her- he'd be in for a very painful lesson. Probably even more so than he was earlier.

Once he got permission to leave, he did. Though he kept looking at her over one of his shoulders in an almost anxious manner before finally disappearing.

"You did good kid. I think he's learned a valuable lesson." Shota said as he reached out and laid a hand on top of her head to ruffle her hair.

"Either that or his already planning something even more stupid." Ichigo deadpanned.

Shota shrugged despite knowing that she probably had a point there.

Bakago was insanely stubborn and could be an utter pain in the ass even when he was being taught something important. Shota had no doubt that the boy was already holding a grudge. But he also firmly believed that after the beating that Ichigo had just finished giving him, he wasn't in that much of a hurry to get on her bad side again.

Much less anyone else's.

After all, Midoiya had given him one hell of a shiner. Which was something that Shota owed the boy for no matter how much he may hate to admit it.

"I was thinking..." He finally said as he studied her for a moment or so. "I think I overheard some of the students saying that they wanted to do a test of courage sometime later tonight-" Ichigo looked at him with a small frown. "And I have to teach some night classes tonight and stuff anyway. So why don't you, ya know? Mingle? Maybe do the test of courage with the others and just...have fun."

"You're really awkward at this."

"Yeah, I am." He said with a depressed sounding sigh.

"But it isn't a bad idea," She said with a shrug, noting the instant way that he perked up a little bit upon hearing her words. "I've never done a test of courage before."

"It'll probably be fun."

"Is that what you really think you poor, poor delusional man?" Ichigo teased him before sobering up some and adding. "I'm going to be stuck in pitch black woods with a bunch of overly enthusiastic kids making fools of themselves. You'll be lucky if someone simply get's injured while trying to run away from some non-existent boogey-man or monster."

"When you say it like that...maybe I should tell the kids to simply stick close to camp."

"And deal with a bunch of angry kids playing with literal fire. Are you _crazy_?"

"No. But I also think that this is an argument that I'm not going to win." Shota said as a perplexed look crossed his face. As if the very fact that he wasn't going to beat her at word sparring utterly baffled him.

Ichigo's lips quirked up a tad in amusement as she said, "Well you're right. But I think it's cute that you thought you'd win."

He grunted and muttered, "You're a weird kid." Ichigo merely shrugged her shoulders again knowing that he wasn't wrong. As he asked, "So...test of courage?"

"Yeah sure. Why not?" Maybe she could turn the test of courage into a training exercise and have some fun scaring the kids in her hollow form. God knew that her inner hollow hadn't been able to come out and play in a while, and was probably dying to have a little bit of freedom and fun.

As long as she made it clear that it couldn't actually attack and hurt anyone, then maybe they could both have some fun. It was certainly worth a shot. Right?


	27. Chapter 27

"Can you believe the nerve of that girl!" Someone said snidely. "I mean, if she isn't a student or a hero in training then who the _hell_ is she to try and teach us anything? How presumptuous can one person be? And can you believe that Aizawa-sensei and the other teachers just _allowed_ her! What could she possibly know about being a hero?"

"I know. But even so- she did make quite a few valid points," Another person said. "Knowing hand to hand is important to a lot of pro-hero's in training. And there's also the fact that we can't always rely on our quirks either. Relying too heavily on them makes us look weak."

"And predictable to villains!" Another person chimed in. "Don't forget that either!"

"I can't believe that they allowed her to beat the hell out of Bakago." A boy said with a shake of his head. "I mean, I know the guy is a jerk and all, but that was too much even as a punishment."

"Well...he did sort of rip her shirt off in public." A girl said with a slight frown.

"Yeah I know but still..."

Izuku listened to everyone talk until he felt the nearly irresistible urge to _snarl_ angrily at the lot of them. _How dare she?_ He thought to himself. His mind turning the words over and over and over again in his head until everything was sort of a jumbled, seething mess. How _dare_ they talk about Ichigo like that. The girl didn't even do anything wrong and these assholes thought that she had no right to beat the snot out of Kaa-chan.

After he had jerked her shirt up and exposed her body. Her scars? Was he crazy or was he the only one that had seen just how freaked out she'd been? For fuck's sake, she'd had a panic attack and froze up!

How could anyone ignore that?

How could they think that she had no right to beat Kaa-chan after that stupid stunt? Even he knew better. These people obviously had neither any respect for- nor right to train to be pro-hero's. Not if they could think such terrible things about a fucking _civilian_ girl who was not only physically damaged but mentally fragile as well.

For god's sake... He thought as his stomach lurched dangerously and bile burned the back of his throat. "What if last night had caused her to try and kill herself again?" He said aloud without meaning too. And was obviously heard by a few people seeing as they quickly converged on him and scared the hell out of him since he hadn't been paying any attention.

"What do you mean she tried to kill herself?" One guy asked curiously as everyone else fell silent so that they could listen. No doubt to listen and twist everything he managed to tell them so that they could start senseless rumors. _Assholes_.

"Did she do something last night after Aizawa-sensei took her away?" A girl asked almost gleefully. Izuku's stomach lurched again at the mere thought of Ichigo adding another scar to both of her wrists. Or worse. What if she was still upset about it and someone set her off to the point where she decided to hang herself in the woods?

He didn't think that he would be able to hold himself back much longer. So he didn't bother. The same 'gleeful' girl asked him the same question again and he threw up on her shoes.

She shrieked in outrage and horror and Izuku had to resist the urge to smile or laugh. Because honestly, she had that coming. Instead he vomited a couple more times after which he used the back of a shaky hand to wipe his mouth and then slowly straightened his spine and looked at everyone like they were the most loathsome creatures in the world.

And considering how they had been acting, he wasn't that far off the mark.

"How dare you," He said the words in a deceptively calm tone. Low, dangerous- anyone who had ever heard him speak in such a manner before would know that he was just a heartbeat away from flying into a rage that would put Kaa-chan to shame. However no one in this group seemed to know him. Well, not well enough to know his temperament anyways. Which was lucky for him. But not so much for everyone else. "How dare all of you stand here and talk shit about a civilian girl. For fuck's sake- how can all of you be so damned petty and cruel? Kaa-chan crossed a fucking line! A line that never should have been crossed in the first place."

"We're all here to train to be future pro-hero's, but you people have your heads shoved so far up each other's asses that you don't even think that she has a right to defend herself. To demand justice of some sort?" He looked everyone in the eye and spat, " _All of you aren't any better than villains_."

Everyone looked at him with a mixture of hurt, and stunned disbelief as he then turned and walked off. He'd rather train alone than with those losers.

* * *

Katsuki had been following her around since she had split from Aizawa and the others. His curiosity was finally starting getting the better of him if he was being reduced to stalker-ish tendencies. But to be honest...after what he had done last night, he owed her an apology. A verbal one.

And not just because she kicked his ass earlier. But because he'd done something that he never shouldn't have done.

Izuku had been acting oddly lately. Now don't get him wrong, he sort of liked the change in the normally meek mannered guy. Until he'd punched him in the face for what he'd done to the girl.

And then he'd from 'like' to flat out _amazed_. Maybe even a little bit impressed.

After all, the Izuku that he'd grown up with wasn't a violent person. He was nice. Fucking precious even. But for some reason that Katsuki couldn't really fathom, he'd been absolutely livid with him for exposing the girl like he had. And to be honest, Katsuki hadn't felt bad about it until he'd seen the horrible scars littering her flesh.

All of it overlapping. All of it vicious and agonizing looking.

He'd only been able to identify a couple of scars or their possible creators anyways. But some of the scars were incredibly difficult to identify, even for him. All he knew was that whoever had put those scars on the girl- they hadn't done so in one day. They'd done it over a extended period of _years_.

That was years of no one helping/saving or even protecting her. Years of struggle and abuse and god knew what else. His hands fisted tightly at his sides as he peeked around the tree that he was using to hide himself to see what she was doing now since she hadn't moved out of the immediate area.

He couldn't help the funny look of confusion that flitted across his face as he watched her run after something small. It took him a moment to totally understand what she was doing. Somehow seeing a total badass like her running after a small furry baby rabbit simply didn't register with him.

Which was why he felt at such a loss at the moment.

He...hadn't expected this. He'd expected her to climb trees, splash around in a creek, maybe try her hand at fishing without a fishing pole or training. But not this.

She seemed to be having fun though.

There was simply a sort of... _innocence_ present in her that he hadn't seen earlier as she scooped up the rabbit and carefully held the thrashing and crying little thing in her hands. And softly petted it's head for a couple of seconds before then bending down, and gently placing it back on the ground and laughing softly to herself as it bolted away from her like a bat out of hell.

Still filled with indecision, he didn't know if he should leave her be and simply find her later or-

"You should come out and join me," She called out to him. The sound of her voice startling him so badly that he nearly brained himself on a low hanging tree limb just trying to hide himself from her. And she must have seen him almost brain himself too since she called out to him again. "You okay there blondy?"

He growled in annoyance and stepped out from behind the tree he'd been hiding behind.

"My name isn't blondy!"

"It isn't?" She said in a teasing tone that completely threw him for a loop. Not even his mother teased him. She smacked him in the head and nagged him and crap. But she didn't tease him. Not anymore. "But you're blond. So you must be a blondy!" She called back. As if her reasoning made any damned sense at all.

He growled again as he felt his anger start to rise, but just as swiftly as it started, he squashed it and simply said, "My name is Katsuki!"

"Well then Katsuki, is there a particular reason that you've been stalking me for?" She asked. He stood perfectly still, trying to figure out the best way to go about apologizing to her for what he'd done. But came up blank.

Wracking his brain for the information that he needed only one thing came to mind- it was sort of extreme and he wasn't proud of it either, but the situation sort of called for it.

So he walked over to her and stopped several inches from her and abruptly dropped to his knees and bowed his head. If his actions startled or confused her, he didn't see it. But he was polite, like his mother taught him to be, and his words were sincere.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done what I did, and I'm a jerk. _I'm sorry_ -" He may or may not have said a few other things as nicely as he possibly could but he faltered and finally stopped talking when he felt long slender fingers gently carding through his wild blond hair.

He held himself perfectly still, not exactly knowing how to react to her touching him in a non-violent manner. But he sort of couldn't help but like the soft touch some.


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't sure how to bond bakago and ichigo. so sorry if kaa-chan is a bit OC.

Katsuki felt more than a little bit scared to move. Like his heart was trying to climb up into his mouth.

It'd been a long, long, _long_ time since anyone had touched him so softly. And as absurd as it was, being touched so gently was just a tad bit overwhelming to him.

On one hand, he wanted to lean into her touch and just let her do whatever. But the more feral part of him wanted to shove her away and snarl at her for daring to- Oh. _Oh!_ He thought to himself as her hand moved away from his scalp to settle at his nape.

Her strong fingers gently massaging the tense muscles in the area and eliciting a deep groan of appreciation from him as he all but flopped over against her legs. Silently urging her to keep going as he buried his face against her pant's leg.

"You're going to have to let me sit down if you want me to keep going." She finally said after several moments of total silence. And his reaction was to instantly _scramble_ to let her sit down so that he could almost crawl into her lap and lay there like an overly large feline wanting to be petted.

His reaction must have surprised her a little bit, he heard her mutter a few vague things inaudibly under her breath as he laid himself in a comfortable position across her legs and let her keep massaging his nape and run her fingers through his hair.

Honest to god, the girl had to have fucking magic hands.

Because under normal circumstances Katuski _never_ would have reacted the same way if someone else had touched him. No- he was far more likely to have set another person on fire or tear their arms off and beat them with them. He didn't even do shit like this with his elderly nana. And he actually _liked_ her far more than most of the people he knew, including his own parents.

Which begged the question, why was he doing this with her?

At first glance, Ichigo wasn't anything special. Sure she was beyond pretty. In fact she was downright drop dead fucking _gorgeous_. But it wasn't her appearance that made him want to let her keep touching him.

Part of him wanted to say that it had to do with the scars littering her skin, all carefully concealed underneath the long sleeves of her shirt. Just like part of him wanted to say that it was because she had been through horrible and terrible things. And that she was maybe more fragile than he'd first expected her to be.

But even he knew that anyone who could accumulate that many wicked scars over a period of years and still be alive couldn't be all that _fragile_. Right?

He could also claim that perhaps he was allowing her to touch him because he was curious about what kind of person she was. Because between her panic attack last night, the single minded viciousness from earlier, the innocence that he'd seen a little while ago and of course this- he couldn't really get a decent read on her.

But despite the beating she'd given him, he didn't think that she was a bad person. Just...not totally unlike himself.

He nearly bolted upright as he came to this conclusion because he technically wasn't wrong. Turning his head ever so slightly so that he could study her, he lowered his lids to half mast so that he could study her covertly from underneath his lashes.

She had a slightly thoughtful expression on her face. As if she were trying to do some overly complicated mental gymnastics of some kind.

Izuku got a similar look on his face whenever he was seriously thinking about something. And as annoying as it was, Katsuki wanted to know what she was thinking.

"What are you thinking about?" Once the question left his lips he nearly kicked himself for sounding like such a chick. But it got him her undivided attention. So maybe being 'chick-ish' this once wasn't so bad.

"I was just remembering that you reacted to my touch a lot like my baby sister's used too. It's nostalgic."

"You sound like you miss them." He said, his mind having already latched on to how she spoke about them and was already figuring out that either she wasn't allowed to see them anymore. Or something had happened and they were _gone_.

"How long has it been?" The words, since you last saw them/since they died? hung unsaid between them. But he found that he genuinely wanted to know.

"Almost three months now." Ichigo said softly. Her voice catching a little bit as she realized that it's nearly been three months since they died. And a soft sound of distress left her throat. He looked at her, his expression a combination of anxious and worried because the pain was obviously still fresh for her and probably difficult to talk about.

"I see," Was all that he could think to say. "How old-" He started to ask how old they'd been, expecting them to maybe be under three or four since that would make sense to him.

"They were both eleven." She said almost automatically. And he sighed and slowly pushed himself up so that he was sitting up next to her, his body turned so that he was facing her. Her hands slipped away from him, and though he would never admit it aloud, but he mourned the loss of them.

"Shit, that bites." He said, wanting to say something about the loss of her baby sisters. But somehow knowing that the words 'I'm sorry' would sound kind of... _lame_ coming from him. No matter how much of an understatement it was.

The death of a _young_ kid was usually heartbreaking to a such a terrible degree that people rarely ever recovered from it. No matter how much time passed.

Ichigo made a non committal sound of agreement and looked away from him for a moment before then suddenly changing the topic and asking, "Have you ever done a test of courage?"

He blinked at her in confusion, but gave her a slow smile as he told her no. From there, she talked his ear off for the better part of an hour with plans to scare the bejesus out of his idiot classmates later that night. Katsuki couldn't exactly say that he didn't think for a little while that she was something of an evil genius.

Her plans to scare the other kids were amusing. And would definitely yield very entertaining results.

And because it was her plan and he definitely wanted to _see_ what happened- he asked her if she wanted some help with her plans and got an excited look/smile from her that nearly stole his breath right from his lungs.

 _No wonder Izuku had been so pissed about her being upset_. He thought to himself, that damned smile of hers was beautiful. It could light up just about anything...and it was just fascinating enough that he wanted to protect it- er her. He meant _her_.


	29. Chapter 29

Katsuki spent the rest of the day with her.

Even after she'd stopped chattering about the test of courage and her evil plans to send everyone else screaming into the night. During which time they either sat close together in silence or he asked her questions in an effort to get to know her/understand her better.

He tried not to ask anything that would be too close to 'what happened to you're sister's' because in all honesty, just from the few brief displays of emotion when her family was mentioned- he already knew that they had been _killed_ by someone. And talking about it was...traumatizing to her.

So he tried to steer away from those questions as much as he humanly could. And instead asked about some of the scars that he'd seen on her body the night before. And so far, he had learned several things about Ichigo.

One, was that he'd been both very _right_ and very _wrong_ about her being fragile. Because she was both. She didn't appear all that fragile on the surface. Her personality was a lot like...well, he had no true words to describe her personality. But she seemed the type to simply roll with the punches.

But all the same, she was both fragile and not. Which he still didn't understand all that well, but decided that he didn't need to really get it to _get it_. Get it?

Another thing was how she dealt with all of the bad situations, fear, trauma- how she took each of the things centered around those, and she _compartmentalized_ them was beyond fascinating. Her ability to reason and understand things that would normally not be reasoned nor understood was also astounding.

Her mind was probably at least fifty percent more analytical than anyone else he'd ever come across.

Her temperament- she was more about the long term effects than the short term ones. An insult today meant nothing, tomorrow. However there were still things that set her off in the here and now that made her want to bludgeon the occasional person to death with a something.

Her words, not his.

But at least he understood that she wasn't the type to hold a grudge. Which was awesome, he supposed as this fact finally registered with him completely.

Because, _damn_ he lucked out there big time. And now he really fucking knew it.

Another thing was her IQ. She didn't seem like it, but she was incredibly smart.

So much so that his mind clocked her intelligence level to be somewhere between ' _Oh she's smart'_ and ' _Oh shit_ , _she's smart'._

The first time he'd spoken with her the night before, he'd leaned towards the first one. But now, after speaking with her a little bit more today, he was seriously leaning towards the second.

And he suspected that such thoughts probably had a severely panicked and hysterical undertone to them once the realization truly hit. He himself wasn't exactly immune to this. He was just better at _hiding_ it.

But what was truly scary- and he wasn't even joking about this either; was the fact that she could out strategize just about everyone present at the camp _easily_.

Which is probably where that _'Oh shit, she's smart'_ thought would originate from.

Her ability to strategize, and out think others was also incredibly dangerous when combined with her ability to execute specific tasks at the drop of a hat and without absolutely no warning whatsoever.

All in all, his assessment of her startlingly placed her in a ranking that he'd only ever used to classify one or two others. All Might, and Aizawa-sensei were both the scariest people that he had ever encountered before that could actually manage to truly scar him shitless.

And now- for some insane reason, Ichigo topped them _both_ as the scariest fucking girl in the world.

Honestly he was tempted to tell her not to bother scaring anyone tonight during the test of courage. All she had to do is walk up to someone and quote how high her IQ was and a majority of the kids present would run screaming for the hills. Especially if they were smart enough to _understand_ what she was really telling them.

And then there was the last little piece of information that he'd learned thus far.

Who was her parent? He knew that Aizawa-sensei had introduced her as someone's kid. But the fact that he hadn't introduced her actually spoken of who her parent/parent's were, was just a little bit surprising to him. Usually, teacher's kids used their parent's names like shields to protect them from other kids.

The fact that Ichigo hadn't done this, meant either she didn't _know_ that she could. Or she did, and she simply didn't care for the slightly dirty tactic because it meant that she would be hiding behind someone else and expecting them to protect her from her peers.

Somehow, she didn't strike him as the hiding type. But didn't really answer his question about who her parent/parents were.

So she told him. And his mouth dropped open in shock because he certainly hadn't expected her to tell him Aizawa-sensei's name. No wonder the man had been so thoroughly pissed at him last night.

He groaned and dropped his head into his hands and stayed that way for several heartbeats before finally raising his head again and saying, "I'm going to die..." It wasn't a question. Merely a statement of fact because he had stupidly bullied the man's kid.

Which meant that it would be an utter miracle if he left the training camp both alive and in one, whole, functioning piece.

Ichigo scrunched her nose up a little bit at his words, and simply said nothing. Because in all honesty it was a miracle to her already that he was still alive as it was. And while she couldn't promise him much of anything considering how pissed her guardian had been about the previous evening's events- she could at least promise that she wouldn't actually let the man kill the poor guy.

He could maybe satisfy his craving for his blood a little bit by maiming him though.

* * *

A tall man dressed in black clothing with his hair tied back in a ponytail looked out over the side of the mountain at the see of emerald green tree tops and closed his eyes for a moment so that he could focus on finding someone. He'd felt an oddly familiar spike in power from this area and had practically damn near killed himself to come running here to _find_ the person responsible.

A vision of eerie blue eyes and long strawberry hair fluttering around a young, hauntingly beautiful face willed his mind as her name left his lips in frustration and worry.

"Ichigo…"

Ichigo Kurosaki was by far one of the strongest and most frustratingly difficult people that he'd ever had the misfortune of meeting before in his life. But she was the defeater of Aizen the man whom had become a God. The chamion of those who needed a champion.

And she was his friend and adopted sister figure.

It had been nearly three months since she had vanished from Karakura Town without a fucking trace.

And though he didn't doubt that at least a _few_ of her closest friends knew where she was at almost every moment of the day...Kisuke, Rukia, and Chad weren't fucking talking.

They certainly weren't spilling any of her secrets to anyone.

Rukia and Kisuke wouldn't tell anyone anyways. They were of the firm belief that the girl deserved peace.

And yeah, he agreed with them, but since the higher ups had handed down orders- there wasn't a whole lot that he could do aside from try and find her and warn her about what was happening since it would affect her as well as everyone else.

He already knew that Chad was on the move. The boy's loyalty to her had proven to be beyond admirable over the years. And hadn't really changed all that much despite her absence.

The moment that Kisuke had told him what was going on, the kid had packed up and left town within an hour to try and find his friend and protect her. The last that he'd heard anything about the teen, he was hanging out with some dumbasses that called themselves the League of Villains pretending to be a baddie for the sole purpose of sniffing the girl out.

He was good at his self imposed job too.

He certainly blended in with his fighting skills and such.

And if not for the fact that Kenpachi, Ikkaku, and Yomichika had gone after him to keep an eye on him, just in case he got in over his head- he'd think that Chad had actually switched sides.

Feeling the not so subtle warning touch of Ichigo's power pushing back at him, his eyes snapped open and he felt tears well up a little bit before he quickly blinked them away. _She was here._ Excitement filled his entire being. Finally, finally he could see his friend again.

He could help her keep her current life even if it meant he had to die for it.


	30. Chapter 30

Chad had just finished texting Kenpachi and the others to let them know where to go. And then put his cell away and grabbed his stuff and headed out to his bike. His mind awhirl with the snippets of information that he'd gotten from the criminally _inept_ idiots he'd been hanging out with recently.

He may not have been asked to go on this particular job but that wasn't going to stop him from going and making a nuisance of himself by getting in their way anyways.

It was the only real form of entertainment that he had now.

Besides, the moment that he found out that they were going after a kid- not a young, young one- but a _kid_ nevertheless, he had geared up for a fight. The acronym WWID, which was short for What would Ichigo Do? had slithered through his mind and he'd been able to picture _very_ vividly what would she would do if she had been present to hear of this shit.

She would have smiled as she bashed each and every person's skulls in. And then savagely torn their bodies to ribbons with her bare hands and bathed in their blood. That's what she would have done.

And he knew that she'd do it because he'd seen her do such things before to others who had stupidly gone after kids. It was sort of a pet peeve with her. You just didn't go after kids or you died for it.

It was just that simple.

And though she had yet to show up, he knew that it was only a matter of time before she did and frankly he wanted to stay on her good side. They were still _friends_ after all.

In the past few months since he'd left home to find her, he'd done a lot of stuff that he wasn't particularly proud of just to blend in. He'd hurt people. He'd even killed... Though he did his absolute best to make sure that the people that he'd killed had deserved to die first.

He was picky about who's blood he shed as well as the reasons _why._

But recently he'd had to preform mercy killings due to the stupidity of the league's people. It's only been two times thus far, but as far as Chad was concerned- two times, was one time too fucking many.

He'd leave town to go help the kid that the league was after. But then he really needed to breakout his hand made Batman/Ichigo signal- which was _literally_ a huge ass search light with the Batman, bat in the middle of it with Ichigo's name cleverly written out in duct tape on the lens- and flash it in the sky a little bit and see what happens.

All this sitting around was making him ten kinds of anxious.

Slipping on his leather jacket, he grabbed his helmet and glasses and started the bike up. He could already see Kenpachi and Ikkaku's bikes in the distance, just a little ways down the block.

And from the looks of things Yomachika had decided to hang back and watch the bar for them while they were gone. Cranking up his bike as soon as they were close enough, he waited until the started to slow down so that they could let him out in front of them before he bothered to pull out into the street.

It would take them several hours to reach their destination. But the good thing about that was that they had time before shit went down. They'd probably reach the camping grounds in a matter of four hours. Which meant that they would have at least two hours left of sunlight to prepare themselves before things really got rolling.

They rode in relative silence until the point where they had to pull over for a bathroom break/gas for their bikes. At which point Ikkaku suddenly pulled out his cell and looked at it for a moment before shouting excitedly, "Holy shit! Renji thinks he's finally found Ichigo!"

 _"What?!"_ Kenpachi demanded as he reached out and snagged the other man's cell phone and quickly scanned the text message that Abarai had sent with a thoughtful frown before letting out a low whistle and handing the cell to Chad and then sat back on his bike and got comfortable.

Chad barely needed to scan the message before his face lit up like a Christmas tree and he tossed the cell back to Ikkaku and climbed back onto his bike and simply said, "Let's go."

Nothing else needed to be said between the three men. Not when Ichigo was finally within their reach.

But that meant that they would have to tweak their plans a little bit so that they could deal with the League of dumbasses, protect the kid that they were after- grab Ichigo and disappear until further notice.

* * *

Ichigo could sense him from at least fifty miles away. It was one of the perks/drawbacks to not totally being able to reign in her power. You could literally _feel_ things for miles and miles- you could even often times tell when something life altering was going to happen.

Plus, Renji wasn't exactly all that great at hiding himself. His energy was about as subtle as a herd of rampaging elephants at the moment. It was nearly palpable with his excitement.

And though his general presence in the immediate area could mean a multitude of different things. Past experiences told her that something was going to happen. Something big, and life altering. Something that would throw her new life into utter chaos again.

And frankly...she wasn't happy about that.

In the past two or so years since becoming a soul reaper, she'd saved the world countless times. Fought wars that no child should ever have to fight. She'd bloodied her hands to clean up the messes made by the _ungrateful_ cretin's of the Soul Society. And she'd lost pieces of herself that made her feel less and less human.

She had lost almost everything of her previous life while fighting against Aizen.

Her home, her dad and sisters, and few really good friends all now lay buried in shallow and unmarked graves. Buried and forgotten by the very people that she'd tried to help so many times.

She was fucking _done_ with saving people.

And she was more than done with cleaning up other people's damned messes. Especially when they never seemed to learn from their mistakes.

"Is everything okay?" Her new companion asked her after she'd been silent for too long. She blinked and turned her head ever so slightly to look at him and frowned a little bit as her eerie blue eyes locked with his vivid crimson red.

"Everything is fine." She said absently as she took a moment to see how far away Renji was from her current location.

He was several miles out, and moving fast. His pace wasn't one that would be considered leisurely by any means. There was an underlying sense of urgency that spoke volumes to her of his anxiousness, and maybe even a little bit of trepidation.

"We should move." She said all of a sudden as she slowly got to her feet. The boy tilted his head to the side a little bit as he studied her. She turned to him and held a hand out to him and wiggled her fingers to urge him to take her hand.

"Why do we need to move?" He asked in a slightly suspicious tone, not bothering to move so much as a muscle.

"We'll have company if we don't."

"One of the teachers? A classmate?"

She sighed, suddenly feeling tired as she said. "No. Someone else."

He frowned at her and turned his head to scan the clearing for any signs of the 'company' that she'd just mentioned, but couldn't find any traces of anyone unknown entering the clearing. "I don't see anyone." He finally said after a moment or so.

"You wouldn't," She said before going on to say. "He's several miles out and moving fast. He's not bothering much with stealth either."

"How do you know?" He asked, still sounding suspicious. And maybe a little bit curious now as well.

"I can sense him." Ichigo said as she wiggled her fingers at him again and waited patiently for him to reach out and finally take her hand in his own so that she could pull him up.

Once he was up on his feet, he looked at her questioningly as she tightened her hand around his own a little bit and started walking. Forcing him to move along with her as she did.

"Where are we going?" He asked as she led him towards the woods across the clearing.

"I need to get you back to camp for now. And then I need to go and _run_ him down." She sounded upset to him and that wasn't something that he found that he liked. Especially since he'd decided to protect her like Aizawa and Izuku.

"Why do you need to run him down?"

"Because I can't have him reaching camp. Not until I figure out just why he's here."

He didn't say anything else after that since he decided to try and follow her when she went after the guy. After all, she was acting as if he were an villain. And if she could sense him... Like actually _sense_ him- then what the hell was she sensing that was upsetting her so much?

That was the multi-million dollar question that had him planning to follow her and keep an eye on her. Depending on how much time he had, he might even alert Aizawa or Izuku about what was going on so that one of them could come with him. Just to be on the safe side.

She got him back to the camp within ten minutes of leaving the clearing. Which was surprising considering that it took him nearly an hour to reach the damn thing before.

Upon reaching camp, she abruptly released his hand and nudged him towards the building and then turned and vanished back into the woods before he could so much as react. Growling softly in annoyance, he took a moment to weigh his options.

He could go ahead and follow after her. But if anything went wrong and the person that she'd been sensing was hostile... What would he do if a fight broke out? He could back her up, and get hurt. Or even get her hurt instead.

"Fuck me," He said in irritation as he decided to instead go and appraise one Aizawa of what was going on and see what the man thought. Though he was at least a hundred percent sure that the man would go after her. _"Fuck me."_ He said again as he turned and ran across the camp in the direction he'd last seen the dark haired teacher.


	31. Chapter 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Renji finally talks to Ichigo- sort of. And Aizawa is about to have a nervous breakdown.

Renji should have known that wherever Ichigo was, she would have sensed him and come to intercept him. However he as much as he should have expected that, he also _didn't_. Which was why he barely managed more than a strangled high pitched scream when she suddenly came out of the woods to the left of him and tackled him to the ground.

They both hit the ground and went rolling due to the high speeds in which they'd been moving. And only ever came to a stop just shy of rolling into a large evergreen tree in a tangle of torso's and limbs.

"Dammit Ichigo!" Renji groaned once he was able to speak again. But _Christ_ did his ribs hurt when he took a breath. Ichigo must not have been fooling around any when she'd slammed herself into him. "What the hell do you think you're going knocking me down like that?!" He snarled at her as she pushed herself up, off of him.

If he sounded angry at her, it was because he was.

Sure being knocked down in general wasn't a big deal. It was when one was traveling at inhuman speeds that being knocked down became _detrimental_ to one's health.

And as it was, Ichigo's little stunt could have _killed_ him. Which she would have remained fairly unscathed physically. The damage done to her mentally upon finding that she'd killed him would likely hurt her quite a bit.

Not to mention all of the negative effects that his death would have on her relationship with Rukia.

"Why are you here?" Ichigo finally asked as she looked at him.

"What do you mean; why am I here? I'm here to find you, you dumbass!" He growled.

 _"Why?"_ She asked a little bit more dully this time. Her voice taking on an flat and emotionless quality that sent chills down his spine. Reigning in his temper upon hearing the dead sounding tone, he took a moment to study her in concern.

Ichigo had changed in the recent months since her departure from her hometown. Though she was still young, just a kid- like the one that he'd nearly killed on multiple occasions- she also looked older. More tired and world weary than any fourteen year old kid had any right to be.

Her eyes were different too. And not just because of the color either.

Oh sure, everyone knew about Ganju Shiba and how one of Aizen's minions had manipulated the guy's mind and caused the two to fight after he had killed a bunch of people. Ichigo, had known that something was wrong with him from the moment that she'd heard of his killing spree, and had stepped in to prevent him from going after anyone else.

She may have won that fight, but the cost had still been _staggering_ to her.

Ichigo's eyes, Ganju's life, and even the guy's older sister- which had caused the Shiba clan to all but die out until someone had learned of who Ichigo's father truly was. Once everything was settled, Ichigo had been gearing up to fight Aizen blind.

_Literally._

However thanks to Ganju's sister's sacrifice and her instructions once dead- she'd had her eyes removed from her corpse and taken to the land of the living where they had been implanted in Ichigo. Which must have hurt the girl more than she had let on.

He'd never seen her cry over the loss of the family that she'd barely knew. But he knew that it couldn't have been easy to bury the siblings while making use of her aunt's eyes.

Her hair was longer, and her body was more mature looking too.

Sure, she'd always been exotically pretty before. But now she was just...well, it almost hurt to look at her.

Under normal circumstances, he would have joked with her about her appearance being more feminine. She'd always held a weird kind of disdain for her own gender. So it was fairly easy to rile her up when her being a girl was even mentioned.

But with things being the way that they were at present, it was best to simply tell her what was up and get it out of the way. Sighing, knowing that she wasn't going to be particularly happy to hear what he had to say, he decided to just dive right in.

He'd always been a firm believer in ripping the band aid off.

"It's the new Central forty six... They've handed down orders to apprehend and to have you locked away in a lab and integrated into a breeding program. With the goal of you hopefully birthing a new generation of-" He didn't get much further than that before she grabbed his hand and slapped something wet and warm and sticky into it.

Twitching a little bit in disgust he started to drop what she'd just placed in his hand but she held him firm and wouldn't allow him too. He started to get a sickening feeling of dread when she refused to break eye contact or let go of his hand right away.

"I-Ichigo w-what are y-you doing?" He stammered out as she gave him a wicked smile and abruptly released his hand so that he could see what she'd put in his palm.

He felt like he was going to cry and vomit both at the same time. As he slowly looked away from her and lifted his hand so that he could open his fingers enough to see what she'd done. The feeling of dread morphed into flat out _horror_ when he realized that she'd slapped a couple of human ovaries into his hand.

Barely managing to keep himself from puking right then, he swallowed the unwelcome burn of bile and looked at her. Really, really looked at her as he slowly began to understand what she'd just done.

Lying on one of her pant's legs was a sharp, jagged, blood stained looking rock and there was a crimson stain blooming along the stomach area of her shirt.

"Oh god-" Was all that he managed to say before he dropped the freshly removed organs to the ground and promptly started to wretch violently.

 _When had she done it? When had she removed her own organs?_ He wondered dazedly. He'd never seen her so much as twitch a muscle the whole time he'd been looking at her! The moment that the realization of this fact dawned on him, he slowly turned his head to look at her with wide eyes.

She still hadn't moved an inch. She was completely, utterly, and perfectly still. Hell, he couldn't even tell if she was even breathing. But then he supposed that after removing her own ovaries with such a crude knife that maybe breathing too deeply was a little bit much for her right now.

Though it baffled him that she wasn't rolling around the ground howling in _agony_. But then Ichigo's pain threshold was beyond human.

"Oh god kid-" He wheezed in between coughs, his eyes stinging with unshed tears as he tried desperately to pull himself together and _do_ something aside from sit there and let her bleed. Finally managing to shake himself, he scurried over to her and carefully pressed a shaky hand to her stomach. She made a weird, strained sound in the back of her throat. But otherwise didn't really react to him or the press of his hand against her wound.

She continued to hold herself perfectly still.

Probably because she was focusing on healing herself without re growing the organs. It would be tricky, considering that her absolute regeneration was exactly that- _absolute_. But if anyone could manage it, it was her.

"I need to get you someplace safe," He finally said after a heartbeat or two of indecision. "There's too many animals and shit that can smell your blood out here." Carefully slipping his arms around her, he did his best to get her up without causing her any further pain or discomfort, but it was difficult considering that he needed to keep one hand on the wound and lift her with his other. But he somehow managed it after several clumsy tries.

One of which resulting in his nearly dropping her and her growling at him from between tightly gritted teeth, _"Do that again and no one will ever find your body."_

She meant it too.

He might have found the threat amusing if not for the fact that it felt as if her insides were trying to spill out of her, underneath his hand. "Where's the nearest rescue center?" He asked, knowing that a rescue center would likely have medical tools and such. Including pain killers and medicines.

Ichigo would at least need a little bit of both. Pain killers for...obvious reasons. And something to keep her wound from getting infected. He'd also likely need a needle, threat, alcohol, bandages ect.

"Don't go there." She hissed out once he had her in a semi comfortable position up off of the ground. Her torso was pressed tight against his own and her head was resting on one of his shoulders.

"I don't have a choice kid. You need medical help."

"I'll be fine."

"You'll bleed out."

"I'll be fine." She said again, her tone slightly weaker than it was before. He muttered a few choice words about her parentage underneath his breath and then turned and quickly started off in the direction that he thought he could feel other living beings in.

He just hoped that he didn't wind up running them into a bear cave.

* * *

Shota was understandably upset upon Bakago finding him and telling him that there was a 'stranger' loose in the valley where his students were training.

He got even more upset when the boy told him that Ichigo had run off to intercept the person.

So after leaving some instructions to 'apprehend' the stranger- if there was in fact one- with the others, should said person show up in their camp. He taken off into the woods in the hopes of finding his not-daughter so that he could box her damned ears for scaring him. _Again._

 _Just what the hell goes on in that girl's mind?_ He wondered as he tore through the underbrush and came to the clearing that Bakago had mentioned when he'd told him where she was likely going.

The boy may not have known many specifics, but he'd given him a general location in which to search.

So that was something. He supposed as he took a moment to scan the clearing for any recent traces of her when he heard movement across from him and saw the vague outline of a person moving around in the bushes.

Slipping his visors on, he took a moment to size the person up- noting that it wasn't one of the other teachers. Whoever it was wasn't Ichigo or one of the other kids either. Growling low in his throat, his eyes glittered an angry feral red as he activated his quirk and moved on.

Ichigo must have been right, was the last thing that he thought until he tore through the thicket behind the person and nearly tripped over his own feet in his haste to stop. His eyes landing on the stranger and then going to the familiar figure of his not-daughter, clutched in the stranger's arms.

She wasn't moving. Wasn't struggling or screaming in an effort to call attention to herself or get help. She didn't even look like she was even _breathing_.

Feeling something dark, and possessive in his mind shift to the forefront of his consciousness- Shota managed to do a quick scan of the stranger as he turned to look at him wide eyed.

His feral red eyes seeing the drying blood staining the guy's skin and clothing and he just lost his fucking mind.

He didn't even really bother to stop and consider whether she may/may not still be alive at the moment. There was no reason present in him. No logic outside of someone had hurt his kid. _Again_.

And he wanted fucking _blood_.

There was no warning- no witty banter, nothing at all to even give his present state of mind away to the other man. And yet somehow he knew.

It didn't matter any though, Shota had him down on the ground by his throat and was beating him bloody within moments. His fist viciously slamming into the guy's face repeatedly.

If not for the fact that Ichigo finally made a sound- a pained sounding scream- the moment that guy carrying her squeezed her too tightly.

Shota might have kept going.

Fortunately, the moment that he heard Ichigo cry out, his senses returned to him and he quickly dragged himself off of the guy so that he could see her. Hitting the ground on his knees, next to them both, he took a moment to carefully pry his kid from the guy's grasp. And then once she was free- he rolled her over onto her back and his breath escaped him in a hiss as he finally noted where the blood covering the two was coming from.

"Kid?" Shota said softly as he quickly slipped his capture tool over his head and spread it out so that he could lay her on it and use it to tie the wound off. It wouldn't stop the bleeding, but then it didn't really need to considering the fact that she was probably already healing.

But it was better to be safe than sorry, right?

Once that was done, he quickly collected her in his arms and then jumped to his feet and started running back the way that he'd come. He didn't care if the stranger followed him or not. He'd send someone to collect him either way once Ichigo was back at the camp where she could be taken care


	32. Chapter 32

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had a rough time of it the past few days and nearly wound up in the hospital yesterday. Right now I'm in a lot of pain and trying to fix that. While also trying to sort through some story ideas for Toshinori/fem Ichigo. Because they would be fucking adorable as a couple. I'd like to do a soulmate story, and Alpha/Omega fic, and a straight up just shameless smutty story where either Toshinori winds up in Karakura town, living next to Ichigo. Or he meets her some other way and she's like a girl next door. 
> 
> I love the ideas. Really I do. But managing to put them into words is so fucking hard. So- if there's anyone out there who would like to try your hand at those ideas...for god's sake give me a link to your work.

The WWP's had collected all of the kids and ushered them back towards the cabin just in case the 'stranger' that Bakago had mentioned to Aizawa, was a villain. They decided to operate under the assumption of the possibility. Since specific protocols had to be followed while the kids were present anyways.

And then there was the fact that if the stranger present in their valley was a villain- they didn't know what kind of quirk he/she had either. So it was a good idea to get all of the kids to take a time out from training just in case.

At the moment, a lot of the kids were just sitting around looking bored. While others looked just a tad bit concerned. The students of 1-A, were specifically upset. Well, upset seemed sort of the wrong work really. Because as upset as they were about having their training halted...they were more worried about Aizawa.

And that was only because _none_ of them had yet to realize that Ichigo was actually missing. With the exception of Bakago, Midoriya, Todoroki, and a couple others whom had also taken note that the girl was strangely absent.

Shota must have been gone for nearly an hour now and everyone was starting to get nervous and antsy.

Bakago was hanging out beside Midoriya, both boys were leaning back against the side of the cabin in a deceptively relaxed pose, whispering amongst themselves while they both scanned the immediate area for any traces of their teacher, Ichigo, and any sign of trouble.

Tiger had heard some rustling a little while ago and had positioned himself between the woods, the kids and the cabin in a protective manner. And despite the fact that the rustling had turned out to be nothing, he'd stayed in that position since he was the only one among his group that excelled at hand to hand.

And right now, he must have been picking up on something with his significantly _sharper_ senses. After all, he wasn't called Tiger for nothing.

He kept tipping his head back on his neck and sniffing the air with a frown on his face until finally he called out to the girls of his group, "I smell blood! Get the infirmary ready to receive someone injured!"

All three women scrambled to do as he said and within moments a gurney was wheeled outside, and a couple of serious looking medical supplies- stuff to start an IV, bandages, cotton swabs and various other things were also laid out along with a couple of needles full of sedatives and pain killers.

The atmosphere got tenser. And everyone fell silent for several heartbeats before Shota came tearing out of the woods carrying the still/unconscious form of Ichigo.

The moment that they were seen, Bakago and Midoriya as well as a bunch of others from class 1-A were up on their feet and moving in an instant.

However Midoriya because he was faster than everyone else, including Shota- he broke away from everyone and used his quirk to fetch the girl and his distraught teacher and then returned back to the cabin within the blink of an eye.

Once there, he helped Shota lay Ichigo out on the gurney provided and then stepped back so that girls from the WWP's could work on her.

"What happened?" One of them demanded.

"I don't know." Shota said as he helped the girls.

His medical training was limited to specific injuries. Things like broken bones, fractures, twists and sprains. He didn't know a whole lot about internal injuries with the exception of how to maybe spot them. But he knew some about how to stabilize a person and administer meds and such.

So while he was being drilled for information on what had happened to her, he was hooking her up to the IV and administering the pain killers and the sedative since he wanted her to actually _sleep_ through whatever they would have to do to her to fix her up.

Sure he knew that her regeneration ability had already come into play due to the fact that the bleeding had slowed to a crawl, but he could only speculate about the extent of her injuries before it simply stopped working altogether.

"Was there a-"

"A stranger," Shota confirmed with an angry glance towards Tiger. "Yeah. The bastard was carrying her off somewhere when I found them. He's still out there somewhere. I had to prioritize her life above catching him. But for all I know, he may be heading here."

"I'll keep an eye out for him then." Tiger assured the dark haired man.

Shota didn't really say anything else about the stranger after that. His mind was still on getting his kid fixed up and maybe even texting Toshinori and seeing if he would come out to the camp to help.

The poor guy had nearly been going stir crazy last night from fighting with Ichigo's kitten, Raphael. So the time away from the little monster might do him some good. And it might do some good to have him around to help Shota keep an closer eye on Ichigo too since the girl obviously still had some _suicidal_ tendencies.

Moving along side the gurney as it was wheeled indoors, he did his best not to think too much on what could have happened to the girl if he hadn't gone after her. But it was difficult considering her present condition.

_Just why had she been out there with the stranger to begin with?_ He wondered idly as he moved himself to the corner of the infirmary so that he'd be out of the way while the WWP's worked on her.

* * *

Outside of the cabin, Izuku and a couple other kids from Aizawa's class were pacing around. It was difficult for them all to sit still and do _nothing_ when Ichigo had been carried back to their camp bloody, limp, and unconscious by their teacher.

"Do you think she'll be okay?" Tsuyu asked. Her tone worried as she took note of how Izuku, and Katsuki were both currently acting. She wasn't the only one to have noticed the usual behavior. In fact several others in their class had noticed the odd behavior as well.

It had also been noted that Izuku and Katsuki weren't the only one's to be behaving oddly. Todoroki and to some extent, even Iida were as well. Though they weren't acting quite as _oddly_ as the other two teens.

"I don't know, there was an awful lot of blood on her." A pink skinned girl, Mina said in an uncertain tone before Izuku finally stopped pacing and turned to Katsuki and demanded,

"Tell me _exactly_ what happened from beginning to end. Don't leave out any relevant details."

Katsuki regarded the green haired teen curiously for several heartbeats, wondering exactly what was going through his mind but inevitably sighed and started to talk.

Deciding to simply go over specific things- like following her so that he could apologize, and simply talking for a while about various things before she seemed to 'sense' the stranger and decided to go after him- he didn't see any point in mentioning her touching him since he didn't particularly feel like sharing that little detail with anyone anyways.

Izuku remained completely and utterly still as he listened, his mind latching onto the fact hat Ichigo said that she could 'sense' the stranger and somehow pinpoint him from miles away.

"She said that she could sense him? Specifically?" Izuku asked, just to be totally sure he wasn't imagining things.

"Yeah," Katsuki confirmed with a grim expression. "She could sense him. He was moving fast, and not bothering with stealth."

Izuku cocked his head, and thought for a moment.

If Ichigo was as augmented as she seemed to be then it sort of made sense that she might be able to _sense_ people and certain movements over a distance. Though how she could tell people apart from animals while so far from the city sort of confused him some.

He supposed that it was entirely possible that she probably had some form of extrasensory ability that she hadn't mentioned before. Possibly for safety reasons since she was still trying to feel everyone out.

But he imagined that if she _did_ have it, then it would be insanely easy to get the drop on someone who didn't know about it- and held any malicious intent.

She did seem oddly understanding and intuitive about a lot of things. Though such abilities weren't a hundred percent fool proof. Especially if unused and untrained. And depending on how often she used it...

_"Holy shit,"_ Izuku squeaked as soon as he realized that Ichigo _did_ have some form of extrasensory ability. One that she must use constantly in an effort to help her fight and protect herself. "Holy shit." He said again, this time his tone was less high pitched and freaked out, and a little bit more amazed.

"What did you just figure out Deku?" Katsuki growled at him in irritation. His own mind turning over the same details and coming up blank. Which was just annoying. Especially when someone else figured out something that he couldn't.

"H-Huh?"

"What did you just figure out?" He demanded again.

"Oh. Well... I was just thinking, that for her to be able to sense someone from a distance- coupled with everything that I already know about her- she must have some sort of extrasensory ability," Katsuki narrowed his eyes at him, but waited for him to elaborate. "I mean, it just makes sense if you really think about it. She's augmented and spent a good portion of her childhood being trained to fight in a professional capacity. She's taken part in thwarting assassination attempts, fighting in secret wars-"

_"What?"_ Another boy, Fumikage asked in disbelief upon hearing this and exchanged looks of alarm with several of his classmates.

"I kept getting a weird feeling that I was missing something important. After all, she's oddly intuitive and understanding about...pretty much _everything_. It's almost as if she knows about things before they even happen." Izuku rambled as Todoroki suddenly chimed in.

"Makes sense. After all, she was raised to be a weapon. Having extrasensory abilities would kind of make her the _ultimate_ weapon. Especially if it's something that no one knows and can't defend against."

"Wait... What the hell are you guys talking about?" Katsuki asked in confusion as he looked from Izuku to Todoroki, his red eyes narrowing ever so slightly. Izuku took a moment to open and close his mouth like a fish as Todoroki sighed.

"We probably should tell everyone something."

"What?! _No!_ She'll hate us!" Izuku all but shouted.

"True, she probably will. I know that she likely won't appreciate us telling our classmates about her past but...it's going to come out sooner or later anyways. Besides, she's injured and what happened earlier may have _something_ to do with her past. Wouldn't it be best if everyone had some clue about what she's been through and stuff? Just to be on the safe side."

Izuku looked like he wanted to tear his hair out and scream. But even he had to admit that the other boy had a point. He just...hated it. And while Ichigo wasn't going to appreciate having them tell their classmates. If what happened earlier when she got injured- had anything to do with her past- then everyone needed to know what was going on.

Just in case whoever had hurt her was in some way linked to some of the villains that had killed her family and such.

Groaning, Izuku scrubbed his face with his hands and then dropped them away from his face and asked, "Alright. How are we going to do this?"


	33. Chapter 33

Dabi stared out over the valley of lush greenery with a disdainful sneer. How typical of the hero's to choose such a nice, pretty place for their little 'training' camp. He already couldn't wait to burn it all to _ashes_.

"Hey, how many people are going to be joining us on this job?" A guy called, Twice asked curiously as he began to pull his suit, mask and weapons out of the bag that he'd brought with him.

"A few." Was all that Dabi could really, accurately say since he didn't know the specific number of people that would be joining them in attacking the hero's and kidnapping their target.

"That's helpful," A tall guy with spikey white hair and green, scaly skin, and a mask around the top part of his face- said sarcastically before sighing and tacking on in a slightly wistful tone. "I wish that we'd brought Sado with us. He seems like a guy that really knows how to strike fear into the hearts of others. I bet that he would have come in handy against the hero's..."

"Sado is a loose cannon." Dabi snapped in irritation as he thought of the strangely silent and watchful young man that had just been mentioned. Said kid had only been a member of the League for nearly three months and already he'd caused them no end of trouble.

Though Twice did have a point.

The kid did know how to strike fear into others. Weirdly enough, he rarely had to even _try_. Which was just plain annoying to Dabi. Though he was just a tad bit fascinated by how strangely knowledgeable the kid was as far as _torturing_ people went.

He'd seen the kid work someone over like a fucking pro once and it had left him feeling oddly subdued. Not necessarily scared. Just...subdued. And maybe just a tad bit wary of him.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Twice asked curiously as he paused his movements for a moment to cock his head at Dabi.

"Dabi is probably talking about his temper. Sado got nice and _riled_ up when he heard about this job," Sang the only girl present in the group as she came skipping up and suddenly jumped on Twice's back and held on as the man floundered and flailed in an effort to dislodge her. "I don't though. He looks so cool when he's bloody! It really would have been nice to bring him. I bet he could have bagged himself a hero or two!"

Everyone present rolled their eyes at the girl's comment and went about their business, preparing for when night fell.

* * *

Chad, Kenpachi and Ikkaku had reached their destination in record time a few hours prior. And were in the process of hiding their bikes and stuff when Chad suddenly stilled upon feeling something slither through the edge of his conscious mind.

His dark eyes narrowed a little bit as he tilted his head some and allowed his other senses free reign for several moments.

Reni was nearby.

He could feel the worried and nervous hum of his spirit energy. It was... _chaotic_ and all over the place. Which was usually how one could tell that the man was scared or upset about something since he generally didn't show his emotions all that well.

"You feel that?" Kenpachi asked as he slowly walked up behind the teen. Chad hummed, his expression thoughtful. _Something must have happened_. He thought before he felt a tingle of something so achingly familiar that it sent chills down his spine.

_Ichigo?_

"Yeah, I feel it alright." He finally said as he grabbed the small bag that he'd packed his weapons in since he wasn't all that sure if his spirit energy would be strong enough to work on living bodies. And he'd rather be cautious when dealing with the league of assholes, since a majority of them were close combat fighters with quirks dangerous enough to kill a person easily.

Once he had the bag slung over his shoulder, he turned to look at Kenpachi and Ikkaku for a moment. The two were oddly distracted by whatever they were picking up from Renji.

Chad could tell by the fact hat Ikkaku had accidentally leaned his bike on Kenpachi's and sent both crashing to the ground. And Yet neither man even seemed to notice.

If they had, Ikkaku would be trying to apologize to his captain while Kenpachi just looked at him weird. Rolling his eyes at the two, Chad sighed as he thought, _This is a fantastic crack team of_ _individuals_ _._ _At least two of us will probably die soon._ Which was followed by the thought, _Ichigo would be so proud. She's been trying to take Kenpachi out for ages._

He wondered if she'd pat him on the head or back for succeeding where she had failed. Or if he'd get a full on hug? Though he sort of felt bad that Ikkaku would probably die with his captain, but let's face it- the bald man vexed Ichigo to no end and she very rarely liked him anyways.

"I'm going to go and scope the area out." Chad said as he started to walk off. "I'll try to be back before dark."

"Okay, be careful kid." Ikkaku called out to him.

Chad waved at them from over his shoulder as he wandered off into the woods a little ways before then heading straight for where he could feel Ichigo the most since he very much doubted that Kenpachi and Ikkaku had even realized that she really was somewhere close by.

Otherwise they would have gone running towards her general location and probably gotten a nasty surprise for their efforts.

He supposed that he'd have to play interference between them, and the league. Sighing again, he picked up his pace in the hopes of reaching Ichigo's location before his time ran out.

He needed to appraise her of the situation with the league, and help her set some traps before he had to return to the others.

* * *

Tiger didn't know what to make of the current situation. But he knew that he didn't really like it any.

After Shota had returned with Ichigo, and he'd told him that he'd keep an eye out for the guy that had probably hurt her- he'd left camp to go and collect him. However he'd yet to find him and had simply started to follow after the blood trail left behind since he smelled very strongly of Ichigo's blood's scent.

He had gotten a fair distance away from the camp before he'd hit his first problem.

The stranger and the blood trail simply vanished into thin air. And not long after that, he'd heard people talking. It was vague, and the sound was slightly distant- but he'd decided to follow it just the same.

Now, here he was up in a tree- watching several men with bikes and weapons.

And he could feel the nearly overwhelming urge to jump down and _maim_ them all steadily rising within him. But he held himself back because he felt the need to gather information on them so that he could plan ahead first.

So far, only _one_ of the three seemed to be a kitten.

Not quite eighteen years old. So yeah...technically still a kitten. Though the boy was considerably taller and more built than any kitten he'd ever seen before. He was tall, probably taller than Toshinori- with dark skin and wavy hair that brushed past his shoulders a little bit.

The kitten strangely seemed like he had _very_ sharp claws to Tiger.

And while that was nice and all, Tiger was in no hurry to test him just yet. But it bothered him more than a little bit when the kitten split off from the other two. Since it meant that he was going to be stuck with his information gathering while the kitten ran ahead to god knew where. To do heaven knew what.

As soon as the kitten was gone and well out of hearing range, one of the two men chuckled and shook his head as the other one asked, "Think he's going to go find Ichigo?"

The mention of Shota's injured and vulnerable kitten made Tiger growl softly in anger.

"You know he is," The tall man with the dreadlocks and eye patch said in amusement. "I keep half expecting him to start wearing a dog collar that says, _Property of Ichigo_ , around his neck."

Tiger cocked his head to the side a little bit, his curiosity about the comment, piqued.

"He _is_ sort of like her guard dog." The bald guy chuckled.

"Well, you can't exactly blame him," Eye patch said in a bemused tone. "They are best friends after all."

"Yeah I know... D-Do you think that she'll be happy to see us?"

"Hm?"

"Well, I mean- she left for a reason and-"

"She's in danger Ikkaku," Eye patch said. "And after everything that she's sacrificed and lost and had ripped away from her- she needs us to have her back on this."

"I know. But I also worry that we may be forcing ourselves into her life again."

"We don't really have a choice this time," Eye patch said with a careless shrug. "She needs us. She may not like it any, and she may downright hate it. But she does. And since she needs us, we have no choice but to _follow_ wherever she leads us."

"It sounds like you've finally met someone worthy of following, captain."

_"Your damn right."_

* * *

Shota put his phone away with a sigh once he was done speaking to Toshinori.

And to say that the man was understandably upset about everything that had happened so far, was an understatement- would be an _understatement_ of it's own.

Toshinori had practically gone _rabid_ once Shota had told him of the most recent development. After which he had assured the dark haired man that he'd be on his way to the camp as soon as he either found a pet carrier so that he could bring the cats with him, or he found a cat sitter.

He had told him to dump the felines on Hazashi's doorstep and then leave. Hizashi should be able to handle the little monsters easily enough. Besides, Shota needed him _here_.

Reaching out absently, he gently ran his knuckles along the curve of Ichigo's pale cheek. Noting that for the moment, between the IV, the meds, and her regeneration ability- that she seemed to be stable. Just... _resting_. Likely from exhaustion as well as blood loss.

Not long after the WWP's had managed to stabilize her condition, he'd been left alone to keep an eye on her. While they went and made sure that the rest of the kids in the camp were still where they should be, and were staying out of trouble.

"What am I going to do with you? Hm...problem child?" He asked softly to no one in particular as he brushed a few strands of her hair away from her face.

He wasn't usually the type of guy to get affectionate with someone that he didn't know very well. But for some reason...touching Ichigo made his already frazzled nerves feel less _frayed_ at the edges. It pushed away his anxiousness and helped him to try and focus on what he should be focusing on right then.

It was also a good way to assure himself that she really was _okay_ -ish.

"Toshi's going to be here in a few hours kid... He's really _pissed_ at your current state. So if I were you," He leaned down to ghost his lips along her forehead for a moment. "I'd try to wake up before he gets here. Otherwise he's going to throw a tantrum and turn this training camp into a newer version of ancient Sparta." He chuckled a little bit at the funny mental image of his students all marching around wearing armor and carrying flint tipped spears.

He had no doubt that Toshi would even have a bottomless pit dug in the center of the camp so that he could kick kids into it whenever they irked him.

The thought truly might have been actually funny, if not for the present circumstances.

Exhaling the breath that he hadn't realized that he was holding, he brushed his fingers across her cheek again and then simply muttered, "Wake up soon kid... And please stop worrying me."


	34. Chapter 34

Izuku wasn't sure what exactly he'd expected upon agreeing to let his friends and fellow classmates know what he and Todoroki and Iida already knew about Ichigo. Shock- was basically a sure thing. Horror? Definitely. But the strange mixture of empathy, shock, begrudging respect and awe that he was currently seeing from them all...

Not so much.

"T-That poor girl..." Momo said, feeling badly for her bad behavior towards her the previous night. Besides her Jiro and several other boys looked slightly uncomfortable. They didn't know what to think about what Izuku had just told them about the girl.

They had expected to hear something horrible about her. But nothing like _this_.

The sheer level of abuse and _dehumanization_ that the girl had suffered from the time she was a small child had to have fucked her up in ways that even Izuku wasn't yet aware of. And to be perfectly honest, she undoubtedly needed more help than any of them could offer her.

Which begged the question... Now that they knew about her past- what did they do now? Sure, they weren't likely to stay away from her. No matter how much common sense told them all that they should. They simply couldn't. Not when their sensei had taken her in and was attempting to help her pick up the pieces of her shattered life.

"I knew that she'd been through some shit," Katsuki finally said before pausing to heave a angry sounding sigh and scrub his face with his hands- Izuku looked at the blond curiously as he waited for the inevitable display of temper that usually accompanied his every conscious thought. But it never came. "But even I don't know _what_ to think of what you've just told us. I mean, what the actual fuck? How did she even _survive_ that shit?"

"From what we understood of what she told us and showed us- she was conditioned from the time she was very young to basically be the ultimate soldier." Todoroki said as he laid a comforting hand on Izuku's shoulder. The boy had hesitated to say anything once Katsuki had spoken, which was understandable to a degree.

His nerves were already terribly frazzled and Todoroki wouldn't swear to it, but he kept looking as if he wanted to cry, scream, or pull his hair out or something. And he really needed to calm the fuck down before Aizawa wound up with two kids torn to pieces.

After all, if he didn't calm down- he might accidentally use his quirk on himself without meaning to. And that would suck considering how dangerous it was for him to use it as it was.

"The ultimate soldier?" Katsuki said in disbelief as he mulled over what he'd learned about the girl earlier before then blurting out, "Fucking hell- She's basically _All Might_ with boobs!"

Izuku made a choking sound as soon as the words left the blond's mouth while Todoroki and everyone else simply started at Kaa-chan in aghast speechlessness. Really that was the same conclusion that many of them had already come too.

It was just... _horrifying_ to hear Kaa-chan phrase what they were already thinking, like that.

"Okay...so, she's All Might with boobs/the ultimate soldier- and right now- she's hurt. And being hurt makes her vulnerable. What do we do about that?" Kyoka asked.

"That's simple," Izuku and Katsuki said in unison. " _We protect her_."

* * *

Toshinori was making good time on the road.

He'd left within thirty minutes of receiving Shota's phone call and the distraught man's report on what had happened with Ichigo. Whom had somehow gotten hurt by someone else, _again_.

To say that he was angry would be a gross understatement.

He was so pissed that he actually managed to carry the car out of the city and into the mountains in his muscle form in under an hour. And now, here he was closing in on the camp while fretting about whether or not he and Shota would have to _lock_ the damned girl up in a 'tower' or something just to keep her out of trouble.

Believe it or not, he _had_ an actual tower back in the city that Shota could use. Just in case locking her away like Rapunzel became a realistically viable option.

And with as upset as his friend was this time, he honestly believed that the man would jump at the offer to use it. Not that he could really blame him any.

The girl seemed to by a trouble magnet. Which was something that neither he nor Shota had seriously thought much of when his friend had first decided to take her in. He was betting that he was kicking himself for that right about now. But it wasn't as if he could just up and abandon the girl when she was already attached to him and vice versa.

It would fuck up any progress that the man had made with her so far.

Sighing as he tried to focus on anything else but _how_ this latest incident had even happened, and turned on the radio in an effort to distract himself from having a nervous breakdown of some kind. After all, if he had a breakdown, then who the hell would help him keep Ichigo alive?

* * *

Rukia hit the ground on the balls of her feet next to Kisuke and Yoruichi, and took a moment to look around. "You feel that?" Yoruichi asked as she tilted her head back a little bit as if she were smelling something interesting.

_"Ichigo."_ Rukia said her friend's name in a breathless tone, earning a strange look from Kisuke and Yoruichi before the two exchanged a knowing look.

Rukia started to take a step in the direction that she could feel their friend in- and was halted by Kisuke when he suddenly snagged her wrist in his hand and said, "I know that you miss the kid and all, bit don't go running off just yet."

"But-"

" _No,_ Rukia. You can run off and see her later. For now, I can sense Chad is close to her. Let him take care of her for you. We need to find Renji and meet up with Kenpachi and Ikkaku."

Rukia felt the nearly overwhelming urge to kick the man and run off anyways. But she knew that he had a point. They had things to do at the moment. Like meeting up with the others and planning their next move.

Chad was close to Ichigo at the moment and he would see to it that nothing happened to their friend. And for the moment that would have to be enough. Sighing because she didn't want to be away from her friend for another moment longer, she hung her head for a moment and felt Yoruichi's hand settle on her head and ruffle her hair.

"It's okay to be upset Rukia. But we really do need to focus on protecting her."

"I know." Rukia said after a moment or so. Her fists were tightly clenched at her sides as frustration bled from her very being. "I know." She said again as she turned in the direction she could sense Kenpachi and Ikkaku and started walking. Loathing every step that took her away from Ichigo's side.

_Ichigo...please be safe._

* * *

Chad was up in a tree on the outskirt of the camp, observing everyone. So far he'd gotten pretty lucky with not being found out by anyone. But who knew how long that would last.

_Jesus, there were kids everywhere!_ He thought in irritation as he eyed some of the kids sitting together in front of the two story log building through slightly narrowed eyes as he tried to figure out the best way to approach the place.

He didn't want to come across as threatening- but he was pressed for time at the moment, and coming across as threatening might be totally unavoidable. Still...he didn't want to scare the kids or anything.

If Renji had made contact with Ichigo then he could just sit himself down somewhere and wait for her to show up.

But even he knew that something was _off_ here. After all, if Ichigo had sensed him- which was very possible by now considering how sharp her senses were- then she should have already come out to meet him. But she hadn't. And that worried him. _Immensely._

_Something must have happened._ He thought to himself as he gnashed his teeth and mentally cursed Renji and his bumbling, oafishness. He was going to have a few choice words for the man if he fucked things up.

Which it was looking more and more as if he had.

Closing his eyes he took a moment to focus on Ichigo's presence. Trying to discern whether or not there was actually something _wrong_ with her. He could feel the chaos in her power immediately and his breath left him in an angry snake-like hiss as his eyes snapped back open and he quickly leapt down from the tree limb. Intending to go to her and use his own power to stabilize her since he knew that she would react to his presence immediately.

He landed lightly on the balls of his feet and started forward when all of a sudden one of the many, many, many kids hanging around noticed him and let out a blood-curdling scream.

_"Villain!"_

Chad froze up for a second and turned his head around this way and that, his eyes going to the tree line in every direction looking for the 'villain' that the kid was screaming about. When all of a sudden he was fucking full body _tackled_ to the ground by four boys.

He hit the ground hard and went as still as humanly possible as he was quickly- and suspiciously, efficiently- pinned down by one kid, a sort of pleasant looking boy with freckles and green eyes- sitting on his chest. And the three others using their bodies to trap his arms and one of his legs to the ground.

"What the-" He muttered as the boy on his chest glared down at him for a moment before raring back his fist and saying almost gleefully,

"Sorry man, lights out." Before his fist connected with his face.

It was on the tip of Chad's tongue to try telling the boy that he couldn't possibly hit him hard enough to put his lights out. Not with one hit and certainly not with his hand remaining intact. But the moment that his fist connected, his vision went totally black and he mused to himself, _Well, I'll be damned._


	35. Chapter 35

Izuku was alternating between shaking his hand to try and get the weird pin prickling sensation to go away, making comical faces from time to time- because contrary to what everyone thought, the villain's face was as hard as All Might's abs- and he may have really fucked up his hand and simply couldn't tell. _Glaring_ at the giant currently lying, bound on the floor of the small room that Vlad and the WWP girls had put him in after they had come running to take care of said person and found him already dealt with.

The WWP girls, Vlad, and Aizawa-sensei hadn't been happy that a villain had so brazenly walked into their camp. But they were even less happy that Izuku, Katsuki, Iida, and Todoroki had decided to take on someone with an unknown and possibly _dangerous_ quirk- on their own.

In fact Pixie-Bob wasn't too far away from the whole lot of them, staring them down, while her tail twitched angrily behind her. As Aizawa patted the guy down, _carefully_.

He'd already found the bag of weapons, and taken them to prevent the guy from using them on anyone once he finally woke up.

And now, he was going through his pockets in search of a wallet or ID that could maybe tell him who the guy was. Upon finding the guy's wallet, Aizawa slowly moved away from him and stood back up and started flipping through it- pausing for a heartbeat or two on the ID so that he could quickly scan it.

 _Yasutora Sado_ , was the guy's name. And he was...seventeen? Aizawa looked up from the ID to the guy and frowned ever so slightly before returning to the wallet.

The guy had a few pictures in it that might explain something about him.

Of course he was expecting family and pet pics. Maybe something hinting at a hobby of some kind. But a picture of the guy with his arms around Shota's not-daughter, Ichigo… The two of them smiling and happy, nearly had the man baring his teeth and _snarling_.

He didn't like that his not-daughter had a bunch of people coming out of the wood works. Especially when most of the people from her life before were all extremely dangerous to her and to others.

"Who is he?" Pixie-Bob asked.

"Yasutora Sado, seventeen years old-" Aizawa said as he pulled the picture of the teen and Ichigo out of it's place and held it up for the others to see, "And... _maybe_ a friend of Ichigo's." He made sure to emphasis the maybe as everyone took a long hard look at the picture.

Izuku and Katsuki were both oddly unmoved by the pic. In fact Katsuki even protested that the pic could have been photoshopped. At which point Todoroki and Iida both agreed that that was entirely possible.

However Shota was quick to shut that line of thought down by telling them that the pic probably wasn't photoshopped. But he'd have one of the WWP girls double check it just to be totally sure.

From then the conversation mostly consisted of what they should do with the guy if the pic wasn't photoshopped. Shota already knew that the boy wasn't the one who had hurt Ichigo- which was probably the only thing that he really had going for him. However he had other things working against him.

Waltzing into their camp with his as of yet totally trained problem students for one. Another was the picture- because he didn't actually know if it was planted as a prop or anything just yet. And then there was the bag of weapons. He definitely had _that_ against him.

Especially since a few of the weapons were semi automatic guns.

The kind used for long range attacks that did irreparable harm and stole lives.

The teen also had Izuku, and Katsuki's hatred focused on him. And as entertaining as Shota thought that it would be to simply let the two loose on the guy if he was an actual villain. He'd have to wait first and see if Ichigo could tell him anything once she woken up.

So while Katsuki kept throwing out the idea of killing the teen. An idea that Izuku, weirdly, was one hundred and fifty seven percent behind all the way since he was already planning out places to hide/bury Sado's body. Shouta had to shut the terrible two's idea down for the time being.

And then just to make sure that they stayed out of trouble, he had Pixie-Bob take them, plus Torodroki and Iida and lead them out of the room to put them to work doing something humiliating as a punishment.

Leaving him alone with the teen wondering what the hell was going on and why someone _possibly_ from Ichigo's past was here.

* * *

Tiger didn't expect to be caught spying. Especially by a pretty, petite little dark haired kitten with a sword that she currently had pressed threateningly against his throat. "Who are you?" She asked, her wide violet eyes staring at him unblinkingly.

He took a moment to appraise her, taking note of how small and fragile she looked as opposed to her mannerisms and used the tip of his tongue to wet his dry lips. This kitten was a lot like Shota's kitten.

Soft velvet over a steel core forged in fires that even he _couldn't_ comprehend. There was wariness, fear and concern in her eyes. It was carefully subdued, but it was there nevertheless. The slight emotion telling him what she, herself wouldn't.

She didn't want to hurt him if she didn't have to.

But for some reason, until she could figure out if he were a threat her and her friends- she couldn't really let him go either. Not when it could cause them problems.

He had been observing the stranger before long enough to understand that they had not only a connection to Shota's kitten, but a little bit of a history too. It wasn't all good either. And while they didn't seem to be there to hurt anyone. Their presence raised a lot of questions for him.

Like what the hell were they doing there?

To his knowledge Ichigo didn't possess a phone. And even if she had, she didn't exactly know the physical location of the camp. So it wasn't as if she could have called anyone and told them where to come.

He felt the kitten's razor sharp blade prick at his skin, and felt a bead of blood slowly slide down his skin as the kitten asked him again who he was.

Quickly weighing the pro's and con's, Tiger decided to take a chance and tell her his name.

"I'm pro-hero Tiger. One of the hero group known as the Wild, Wild Pussycats."

She tilted her head to the side a little bit as she mulled over his name and status before slowly removing the sword from his throat and sheathing it. "Forgive me," She said formally. "I didn't realize that there were any pro-heroes in the area."

"Is there a reason why you didn't expect pro-heroes to be in this area?" He asked curiously.

She seemed to hesitate in replying to him before then curtly saying, "You should leave." And then moved back a little ways in preparation of climbing down from the tree when his next question stopped her cold.

"Are you a friend of Ichigo?"

Her head swung back around, her eyes narrowing at him as something akin to anger sparked in them as she moved back to her previous position- crowding him. Her small hand resting on the hilt of her blade and she looked very much like she wanted to strike him down for something.

But for the life of him he couldn't figure out what as she slowly hissed out.

"Don't. Say. Her. Name. You may be a pro-hero, but you aren't _worthy_ of saying Ichigo's name in such a familiar manner." Ah, so that was why she looked so mad.

She felt that he was in some way being disrespectful.

"That doesn't answer my question," He pointed out, not bothering to apologize for ruffling her feathers a bit as he asked again. "Are you a friend?"

She gnashed her teeth and looked at him like she'd like nothing more than to smite him before hissing out slowly, as her shoulders slumped slightly in defeat. "Yes. I am."

He nodded his head slowly in understanding.

Something was going on here. That had to be the reason why people were gathering so close to the camp. And it had something to do with Ichigo. He just didn't know yet what part Shota's kitten had to play in any of this.

"Are they friends as well?" He asked curiously, pointing at the others. She blinked at him and moved her finger in a subtle motion that he followed with his eyes as she pointed to the tall, scruffy looking ash blond man, and the buxom woman that had recently joined the other two men.

"They are?"

She nodded. "Yes."

"Why are they here?"

"I..." She started to say something when the buxom woman called out sharply,

"Rukia! Stop talking to the local and get over here!" The sound must have startled the kitten slightly, because she jumped and then nearly tripped over her own feet and would have fallen out of the tree if not for Tiger reaching out and grabbing her to keep her from falling.

"Thanks," She muttered to him as she turned to leave again before pausing to look at him form over her shoulder and simply said. "We're here to keep Ichigo safe. That's all that you need to know." And then dropped out of the tree, leaving Tiger there to wonder what exactly they were here to protect Ichigo from.

She'd already been hurt.

Had they come here to try and prevent that from happening? Or was there something else much worse in store for Shota's kitten?


	36. Chapter 36

Awareness slammed into her with all the subtlety of a freight train. One moment she was out, and the next she was bolting upright on her bed with a full body shudder, a gasp of pain- and a weird pounding in her skull that made the world tilt and spin dangerously.

 _"Shit, again?"_ She wheezed as she reached out blindly and felt her fingers brush against something cool and metallic and promptly knocked whatever it was over with a loud clatter that echoed in her ears like thunder. Causing her to flinch and recoil a little bit.

Blinking her unfocused eyes in an effort to bring the world back into focus, everything suddenly came to a stand-still when she felt something familiar slither through the subconsciousness of her mind. _What the?_ She wondered as the word **_Threat_** pounded through her.

Her awareness shifted, as her instinct took over and the dam that she used to hide her power behind so that she appeared more normal and human- cracked ever so slightly as she reached out with her senses.

Not many people with the exception of a very select few even knew that she could use her senses in such a way. It _was_ meant to be a secret after all.

Besides, what was the point in telling one's enemy that she could not only find them, but track them by using an imprint of the very foundation of their being, over great distances with the single minded purpose of destroying them? If her enemies knew even _half_ of what she could do- of what they had all had a hand in creating- they would run and never stop.

The first threat that she sensed, wasn't really a threat at all. It was Chad. She could feel how physically close to her he was, and frowned before searching out the others that she could feel. Several of the 'threats' that she felt close by were oh-so-very-familiar in power.

One was Kisuke, another was Yoruichi, and another was Rukia.

She knew this as surely as she knew that she was still breathing. The moment that she sensed them, all three had sent her a special hello of sorts. Which was normal for them during times of trouble since it eased their nerves a bit while keeping her calm.

What wasn't normal however was the fact that she could almost _feel_ the three wrap their power tightly around her as if they were trying to shield her senses from something painful.

Only Kisuke had ever done this. And that was on the day that her dad and sisters had been killed.

So if they were all making an attempt to shield her from something, then whatever it was had to be _detrimental_ to her well being and her sanity.

Sending them back a small pulse of warmth that was laced with a small greeting and her worry- she got the mental image of all three stopping what they were doing at that moment, and smiling faintly. Before she slowly and reluctantly moved her senses away from them in an effort to find the real threat.

After all, she wasn't so stupid as to think that they would hurt her. No- they weren't the threat to her. Never had been and never would be. But someone else on the mountain was. And she needed to find them _ASAP_.

* * *

Shota was torn between keeping an eye on Sado and returning to Ichigo's bedside and remaining there until she awoke. However as much as he wanted to be next to his not-daughter when she finally opened her eyes. He couldn't take his eyes off of a possible villain. Not when doing so could cost him greatly in more ways than one.

Self preservation was a funny thing.

And right now, his was telling him to stay put and keep a close eye on the boy. Ichigo would be fine for the moment. Especially now that she was in a safe place that he could easily _reach_ her if he needed to.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been standing there glowering at the boy when he suddenly came awake with a full body jerk and nearly scared the hell out of him. He moved away from the teen so that he wouldn't be able to attempt kicking him or anything should they wind up tussling and narrowed his eyes as the boy let out a ragged half groan half laughing sound.

"Fuck, Ichigo's never going to let me live down being taken out by a little kid."

Shota cocked his head a little bit, wondering about the boy's words for a moment when he let out a string of foul oaths, upon finding his hands bound. And rolled himself over so that he was onto his stomach for a moment before managing to get his legs underneath his large body and pushing himself up so that he was sitting instead of lying down.

If nothing else, Shota felt a tad bit impressed at what he'd seen so far. After all, it wasn't easy for someone Toshinori's size to basically turn themselves into human pretzels just so that they could maneuver themselves a specific way. Bending one's body in such a manner was uncomfortable and pulled at the muscles and tendons in one's limbs almost to an agonizing degree.

And if a person wasn't careful, they could hurt themselves quite badly.

Seeing the boy take a moment or so to look around the room that he was in, before his dark eyes settled on him, Shota mentally prepared himself for...whatever. When the boy simply asked, "Am I still at the camp?" He didn't sound angry, or upset or even bothered by the fact that he'd woken up bound or anything. He simply wanted to know his exact location.

"And if I said that you were?"

The boy didn't respond. He just nodded his head for a moment and then asked, "Where's Ichigo?"

Shota visibly tensed, though he managed to hide that fact well enough thanks to his scarf and his clothing. Still...he got the weirdest feeling that the boy _knew_ that he hadn't liked being asked about his not-daughter.

"I have questions." Shota finally said, his tone taking on a dark razor sharp quality that did little to hide his agitation.

"I'm sure that you do," The boys said before finding the clock on the wall and then tacking on, "You should ask them quickly. Time's running out and I don't know how much longer I have until dark."

Curious, Shota cocked his head and demanded, "What happens at dark?"

The boy just sighed and gave him a grim look and simply said, "Nothing good."

* * *

Toshinori's phone had died at some point, so he wasn't able to message Shota and let him know that he had finally reached the camp.

He did however jump out of the vehicle once it was slowed down enough, and let it drive itself right into a tree. While he hurried inside in his muscle form and nearly mowed down Ragdoll and a few kids in the process.

"All Might!" Ragdoll gasped as she stumbled back away from him a little bit.

"Where is Shota?" He asked- well, more like demanded really. He needed to see if his friend needed him for anything before he went to check on Ichigo.

"Aizawa-sensei is upstairs with the villain that Izuku and the others caught earlier." One of the kids said helpfully. Totally missing the eerie stillness that settled over the large blond as he asked in a dangerously low voice.

_"What. Villain?"_

"The one that came into camp." Another kid said.

Toshinori let out an angry sounding hiss and then asked where both Shota and Ichigo were exactly. Oh sure he understood what upstairs meant, but the building had two floors and over twenty something rooms. And an exact location would be nice since it would keep him from searching in unnecessary places.

Ragdoll seemed to pick up on what he wanted and was easily able to tell him. After which, he simply nodded to her in thanks and told her to keep the students away from the room were the 'villain' was located before walking off.


	37. Chapter 37

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chap mentions some of the reason why Ichigo left Karukura.

"What is supposed to happen once it's dark?" Shota tried asking again.

But the boy, Sado was a pretty tight lipped little bastard, and upon having him refuse to tell him where Ichigo was- had automatically clammed up and refused to speak to him anymore. Because apparently talking to him was a trial and he'd much rather speak to the girl.

If Shota wasn't at least _half_ sure that the kid was up to no good, he might have actually let him speak to Ichigo.

But he wouldn't have allowed the boy to be alone with her. In her present condition, there was no telling the damage that he might be able to do to her if he tried to attack her. And he didn't want his not-daughter to get hurt again.

Though the more time passed, the more he was beginning to suspect that the boy had no intentions of hurting anyone. When he'd asked about Ichigo, he'd seemed... _worried_ for her. Maybe even a little bit scared that something was wrong with her?

Sighing because the boy wasn't saying anything, Shota decided to ask him something else to see if maybe it would get the boy to talk. "How did you and Ichigo meet? And what is the nature of your relationship?"

The boy visibly twitched a little bit at the questions. And remained silent for a moment before finally saying, "I'm her best friend and her right hand. I follow where she leads."

He blinked at the weirdly worded response. Because he had never heard someone refer to themselves as someone's 'right hand' before. And the boy's response was just a tad bit puzzling.

Sure he understood friendship. And even the lengths that some would go to help their friends and stuff. But the boy seemed to be _weirdly_ devoted to Ichigo. Cult-like devoted.

It sent a shiver of apprehension down his spine that he didn't like. Not one damned little bit. Especially since cult fanatics were in a whole new league of _dangerous_ that he wasn't sure that he was quite ready to deal with.

"Okay, so you're friends." He didn't sound like he believed him. "How'd you two meet?"

The boy's lips quirked a little bit into a fond smile and Shota cocked his head as the teen said, "I was walking to school when I decided to cut through an alley and walked myself into the damndest situation I'd ever seen before in my life- There was...I dunno, more than a dozen or so yakuza's strewn about the ground in various states of inured or unconscious. I think I must have at least tripped over one or two that were missing an ear, and a few fingers."

Shota remained eerily silent as he listened.

"I started to freak out a little bit and moved faster because I didn't want to tangle with the person or...whatever that had left those thugs in such a state. And I got almost to the middle of the alley when I came up on these three guys- they were yakuza too I think. They had some poor kid down on the ground and were about to crack her head open with a home made sledge hammer wrapped in barb wire."

"The first thing that I really noticed about the group was, that the guys still standing had definitely seen better days. And the kid that they were holding down- was an eleven year old girl. Mean tempered, and even _meaner_ mouthed. I've never heard a girl say such embarrassing things before. She called those guys everything that she could think of, she was so _pissed_."

His lips twitched a little bit as he imagined Ichigo as a mean mouthed eleven year old in a bad situation. She sounded like she'd been a hand full even back then.

"Anyways, they were about to crush her skull in when they saw me and figured that I must be there to help her. Technically they weren't wrong. And at the same time they were. I mean, I wanted to help her- but I also didn't want to get dragged into any yakuza stuff. Gang wars and such are a pain to try and avoid when you're new to an area. Ya know?"

Shota didn't know. But he could certainly empathize.

"So upon deciding that I must have been there to help her, they attacked me. Broke a few two by fours over my chest, shoulder and stomach- and they made the horrible, horrible mistake of turning their back on the girl. One second these guy's are tying to wail on me with make shift weapons and the next they're being thrown around like rag dolls and the girl was stomping the ever loving hell out of them. She stole their weapons, their wallets-"

Shota actually snorted in amusement at hearing the bit about Ichigo stealing the guy's wallets. Apparently that was her go to thing when she was irked at people attacking her.

"And then she asked what my name was. I told her that my name was Yasutora Sado. And she must have misheard because she was concussed and staggering around a little bit and was bleeding from a head wound. So she thought that I said that my name was Chad. She told me that I was awesome. Thanked me for helping, though I didn't really do anything at all to actually help. And then she sort of just...staggered off."

"And that's how you became friends?"

"Nah, we didn't really become friends until the second time that we ran into one another. She'd noticed that I froze up and didn't try and defend myself after the first time. So she tended to keep an eye on me, just in case. And it's a good thing too because some thugs from different gangs kept jumping me to and from school. She beat them up for me. I guess that she felt like she owed me after the first time or something." The boys shrugged his broad shoulders. "She didn't owe me anything. And I tried to tell her that repeatedly, but for some reason- she just...kept protecting me."

"So you became friends?" Shota asked again. He was unable to hide his amusement as the boy replied in an incredulous tone.

"I wasn't about to piss off the little firecracker. She was a mean kid. _Cute_. But fucking mean. Besides, I developed a healthy respect and fear of her temper early on because I didn't want her coming after me."

Shota supposed that he couldn't fault the boy there. If she truly had done those things as an eleven year old then he might have reacted in much the same manner. Still, he had more questions for the boy before he decided to either let him go or...lock him up.

"If your both such good friends- then why didn't you come with her when she left home?"

The boy swallowed. His adam's apple bobbing slightly with the action before slowly saying, "I don't know exactly how well you know Ichigo- But...if you knew anything about her at all, you would know that she isn't someone who would ask a person to do something like uprooting themselves, at the drop of a hat. That being said, something happened to one of our mutual friends. It was after Ichigo's dad and sisters were killed."

"The last time that I saw her, was when we were both sitting in the hospital waiting room together. Waiting for someone to tell us whether or not Orihime would make it. It must have hurt more than she let on to find Orihime like she did. And doubly so when she found the note that she had left behind explaining her actions. But the long and short of it was that Orihime suffered from survivors remorse as well as guilt from not being able to help save at least one of Ichigo's baby sisters."

He frowned as the boy kept speaking. "Orihime's a healer who can bend the laws of physics and space and time. Returning one or even _both_ of the girls would have been easy for her. But she couldn't do it. And she felt really, really bad for being so weak that she couldn't give at least one of them back to Ichigo. So she did something stupid to punish herself. And once everyone found out about the letter that she'd left for her, explaining why- a couple of our friends turned on her. And it was bad."

"One of them attacked her. Another one burned her home down thinking that they might be able to _purge_ Ichigo from the world by burning her alive. But she was staying with me at the time, so that person missed their chance to actually kill her. Things escalated quickly from there and soon everyone was at everyone else's throat over whether something should or shouldn't be done to make Ichigo pay for something that she had _no_ hand in whatsoever. So she did what she could to stop all of the fighting- and she left home. She didn't say goodbye, didn't leave anything telling any of us where she was going. She just _left_. And those of us who still care have been worried sick about her."

Shota shifted a little bit from one foot to the other as he considered this new information carefully before muttering a quiet oath and deciding to cut the boy loose for now. He'd simply have to keep an eye on him in the meantime and hope that he could get some more answers before the sun set.

* * *

Toshinori had stood outside of the room that Shota had been questioning the villain in, listening for something. Anything that would explain _why_ a 'villain' was in their student's training camp. So he was naturally relieved to learn that the person that had been captured wasn't actually a villain.

Though that didn't really mean anything as far as trustworthiness. But then knowing Shota as he did, he knew that he would be keeping an eye on the guy while he was there.

Huffing quietly, he pushed away from the wall and decided to move on and go check on Ichigo since Shota was otherwise occupied for the moment.

Making his way to the infirmary, he expected to walk in and find her resting or something instead of sitting up on the bed, looking...like something was horribly, _horribly_ wrong.

She was pale, her face nearly bloodless. And her hair and skin was damp with sweat that could indicate either a severe fever or something else wrong.

"Ichigo!" He said as he rushed to her side and started to reach out and grab her shoulders when she jerked her body away from his hands and snapped.

"No! Don't touch me!"

He froze up as she lifted her head and looked at him with wide, glowing blue-white eyes that seemed to look right through him. Feeling his heart begin to pound out a rhythm filled with dread and fear.

"Ichigo? It's me, Toshinori." He said softly, hoping that she might snap out of whatever was wrong with her if she heard his name. She didn't. If anything she continued to look at him with those eerie glowing eyes that were both strangely focused and unfocused at once.

"Ichi-"

"Shh," She shushed him. "There's something in the woods. Something horrible that threatens all of us." He frowned and opened his mouth to ask her what she was talking about but she silenced him by reached out and absently laying a finger against his lips before then saying, "I need Chad brought to me. I need him brought to me right now."

Toshinori didn't know why she was wanting the person that Shota had been speaking with brought to her, but something about the way that she kept insisting that he be gotten for her, spurred him into action. Quickly moving away from her, he ran to the door of the infirmary and shouted for him to come there... _now_.

Once he was sure that he could hear his friend's semi hurried foot falls heading in his direction, Toshi stepped back inside of the room and moved back to Ichigo's side. His anxiety spiking even more when he noticed that the girl seemed to have zoned out on him.


	38. Chapter 38

Shota didn't have any time to balk or think, or to even wonder what the hell was going on upon hearing the booming voice of Toshinori's, All Might form calling for him from down the hallway. His heart leapt into his throat and he automatically left Sado, not caring one way or another whether the boy decided to follow him or not.

If Toshiori was shouting for him- then there was usually a damned _good_ reason for it.

And with that firmly in mind, he practically rushed to where his friend was located. Pausing only for a moment when he realized that he was in the infirmary, to steel himself against whatever he might find Ichigo doing or _not_ doing, whatever the case may be this time.

Entering the room, he expected many things to have happened.

The possibility of Ichigo needing to be air lifted out of the valley to the nearest hospital because her condition was declining was just _one_ thing among many of his present concerns. Another was that she might have stopped breathing. Or was still bleeding and was loosing far too much blood.

However finding her sitting up and staring vacantly, straight ahead, her already eerie blue eyes glowing a pale blue-white color, her face pale, her skin and hair damp with sweat. While Toshinori hovered next to her trying to hold her up by her shoulders- his blue eyes and his expression holding mirroring images of worry and even a bit of fear...wasn't what he was expecting.

"A-All Might what-" He wanted to ask him what was wrong, but he could already see what was wrong just by looking at her. Her abilities, the ones that she usually held such tight control over- were running rampant and she wasn't even trying to stop it. Or maybe she was, and she was simply too weak at the moment to reign them in on her own.

"Ichigo!" He called out to her as he started to cross the room, only to find himself suddenly being yanked back by a large hand. He didn't even have to look to know that Sado had followed him. The brat was too fucking nosy for his own good.

However as he was beginning to open his mouth to snap at the teen, he heard the boy growl out. " _Don't go near her._ She isn't in very much control at the moment and needs someone to anchor her before she winds up tearing herself and someone else apart."

"W-What?" Shota heard Toshinori squeak out upon hearing this and look like he was going to be sick.

The very idea of the girl tearing herself apart with her own power was something that sent a vicious stab of fear through the muscular blond. It did the same to Shota too.

So much so that he tried to use his quirk on her. But _dammit_ , he'd forgotten for a moment in his panic that his ability only worked on quirk users.

"What do we do?" Shota asked in a slightly shaky tone after a heart beat or two as Sado moved him back away from the door to the room.

"You don't do anything. You need to stay here while I trade places with your friend. It'll be okay. I'll take care of her." Sado said gently, but firmly as he pressed Shota back until his back hit the wall across from the infirmary.

He didn't know what the boy was playing at, but if he thought that he could in some way _help_ her- then Shota had no choice but to let him since he apparently seemed to know more about what was wrong with her than either he nor Toshinori did.

Once the boy was sure that he would stay put, he turned his back to him and moved towards the infirmary and called out in a coaxing tone. "Ichigo, I need you to focus on the sound of my voice for a moment," The girl visibly twitched in Toshinori's grasp. "I need you to focus hard and reign in your power a little bit. Once you do- I'm going to come over there and make a connection with you by giving you some of my own power. It'll help to ground you."

"I-It hurts…" Ichigo said after a moment or so as the glow in her eyes slowly began to fade a little bit leaving her feeling weak and cold. So cold that her whole body started to tremble and shake and her teeth started to chatter a little bit as she tried to curl in on herself in an effort to remain warm.

Sado looked like he'd been punched in the gut upon hearing her admittance. His own face turned pale and his expression changed from one of concern to horror as he quickly crossed the room to get to her.

He didn't waste much time from there. Grabbing the blanket that was supposed to be keeping her warm, he used it to wrap her in and reached out and placed a hand over her chest. Right where her heart was.

And a second or so later, his hand started to glow red as he _pushed_ it into her while his other hand came up to tangle in the silken strands of her hair at the back of her head. She gasped and nearly fell back from the force of his power being pushed into her. Or at least she would have if not for he and Toshinori both holding her up.

She made a soft whimpering sound as Sado shushed her and softly crooned. "I know, sweetheart. I know. Just hang on. We're almost done."

And then just as suddenly as it started, the red glow disappeared from the boy's hand and Ichigo slumped over in both of their grips looking visibly drained. She was still shaking, her skin and hair was still damp with sweat and Toshinori wouldn't swear to it but she seemed to be taking big gulps of air. Almost as if she hadn't been getting enough moments prior.

"How are you feeling Ichigo?" The boy asked her as he slowly removed his hand from her hair so that he could smooth her damp hair back away from her face.

She sat like that for several moments before finally lifting her head. The first thing that Toshinori could see was that the unnatural glow was gone from her eyes. The second thing that he noted was that she didn't look quite as pale as she had before. Her face had some color in it.

Her eyes didn't look so unfocused either.

"Tired." She said softly as she tried to stifle a yawn. Sado smiled at her as she then spat in a dark, growling tone, " _There's a threat nearby_."

Sado nodded his head. Though Toshinori wasn't sure if it was to confirm Ichigo's words or if he was merely humoring her.

"I know." Chad said after a second or so.

"Who are they?" Ichigo demanded.

"No one that you need to worry about-"

"Chad." Ichigo said his name warningly and his lips quirked up a little bit before he said.

"I'm you're right hand for a reason, Ichigo. Let me do what I came here to do."

"I don't want Aizawa, this guy," She jerked her thumb over to indicate Toshinori. "Or the kids getting caught up in something."

"They won't," Chad assured her. "I have a plan. And I have backup too."

"I know. I could feel Rukia, Yoruichi, and Kisuke."

"Really?"

Ichigo nodded before then adding in a surly tone. "I could feel Ikkaku and Kenpachi too."

"Yeah, sorry. They've been sticking close to me lately just in case I get into something that I can't get out of."

"Yeah, figures. Have they at least been behaving?"

"Sort of. I have a _long_ fucking story to tell you later about winding up going to Disney World with their crazy asses." Chad said. Ichigo burst out laughing as she leaned forward a little bit and rested her forehead against the boy's shoulder for a moment as his eyes flickered to Toshinori for a moment.

Noting that the man was listening to everything being said, and that something in his expression turned positively _lethal_ once Kenpachi was mentioned. Which meant that either she had talked about the guy or...she had found someone with a quirk that she'd let be used on her.

 _Shit._ He'd have to warn the man to be on his absolute best behavior and not engage anyone in any form of sparring or fighting otherwise big and blond might decide to try his hand at tearing him apart.

Ichigo's laughter finally tampered off and she got quiet for a moment before saying, "I'm really tired."

"I know. Burning yourself up from the inside tends to take a lot of energy out of you," Chad said as he rubbed her back soothingly until she moved her head from his shoulder. "Why don't you try and lay back down and get some rest while you're body and power both stabilize."

"I can't. Not while there's a threat."

"You can, and you will. Or I'm going to have your big blond friend sit on you." Chad said as he smoothed her hair back from her face again as he shot Toshinori another look and mouthed, _'Take care of her.'_ Over her head. He nodded his head curtly as the boy moved back away from her and let him ease her back until she was lying down again, and took a moment or so to fuss with the blanket to make sure that she would be nice and warm after her...ordeal?

While the boy took the chance to leave the room.


End file.
